crime
Killed from hate? According to shots in church, motive is unclear
Updated on August 28, 2025 – 6:57 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Deadly shots during a school service trigger horror in the United States. The FBI checks a possible terrorist background. Did the shooter act out of hatred?
After the shots in the vicinity of a Catholic school in the United States with two dead children, investigators examine the background of the crime. The FBI examines whether the fatal shots are to be assessed as domestic terrorist act and hate crimes against Catholics. Much is still unclear.
On Wednesday morning (local time), a shooter shot through the windows into a church in the area around the school, in which a school service was held. He aimed at children who were sitting on pews. Two children aged 8 and 10 still died at the scene. 14 children and 3 adults were injured.
Why did the shooter choose the Catholic school in the big city of Minneapolis in the first week after the summer vacation? The police initially made no direct connection hours after the crime. A connection between the shooter or his family and the church is still being examined. The news channel CNN, citing a yearbook photo of 2017, reported that the suspect was said to have been at the school before. The “New York Times” reported that the shooter’s mother is said to have worked in the church’s office.
The broadcaster CNN also reported on police sources that the shooter had visited the church weeks earlier. According to the report, the investigators assume that the shooter could have had the plan to penetrate the church at the crime and from there to shoot himself. “Some doors were closed after the service began, which is part of the normal process,” the news channel quotes the local police chief, Brian O “Hara. This prevented an even worse tragedy.
On a weapon of the suspicious 23-year-old, who killed himself after the shots, are said to have stood doodles. US Minister of Homeland Kristi Noem emphasized three examples in an X-Post that should have been found on a magazine of a rifle: “For the children”, “Where is your god?” And “Donald Trump kills” – the US president. In her explanation, she did not explain whether it was one of the weapons that he used in the violence in the US state of Minnesota in the north of the United States. According to police, the perpetrator had three weapons with him – a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol that he had all legally acquired.
