cityofminneapolis/YouTube Police said an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old were killed in the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church Seventeen other people were injured, including two children who are in critical condition, according to authorities The gunman, believed to be in his 20s, took his own life, police said The mayor of Minneapolis,where a gunman opened fire at a Catholic churchon Wednesday, killing at least two children and injuring 17 other people during morning Mass, said "thoughts and prayers" were not a sufficient response to the mass shooting. "These were American families, and the amount of pain that they are suffering right now is extraordinary," Jacob Frey said at a news conference near Annunciation Catholic Church in South Minneapolis, where the shooting occurred. "Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying." The deceased children were aged 8 and 10. Of the 17 people injured, 14 are children, two of whom are in critical condition, officials said. Hennepin Healthcare received injured pediatric patients between the ages of 6 and 14, said emergency medicine chair Thomas Wyatt. The church has a school for children from prekindergarten through eighth grade. Frey noted that the school year had just begun this week. The students were celebrating their first Mass of the new school year at the church on Wednesday morning when the gunman fired a rifle through its windows at the children sitting in the church pews, striking children and worshippers, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said. Dozens of children attended the Mass, O'Hara said. The gunman, believed to be in his early 20s, also fired a shotgun and a pistol, O'Hara said. O'Hara did not release the name of the gunman, who ultimately took his own life, or whether he had any ties to the church. "This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping," O'Hara said. Read the original article onPeople
