A 10-year-old boy who was inside a Minneapolis church when a shooter opened fire through the church’s windows, striking several children inside, described the horrifying experience, including how he said one of his friends saved his life.
Weston Halsne was sitting in a pew near the windows where a gunman pointed a rifle and began firing shots at children who had gathered for Mass at the Annunciation Church to celebrate their first week back in school.
“I was like two seats away from the stained glass windows so … the shots were like right next to me,” the fifth grader told NBC News after being reunited with his family.
Weston described the moment gunfire rang out as “really scary,” but credits one of his friends, who he identified as Victor, with saving his life.
“The first [shot] I was like, ‘What is that?’ I thought it was just something. Then I heard again, I just ran under the pew, and then I covered my head,” he said. “My friend Victor like saved me, though, because he laid on top of me, but he got hit.”
Weston said his friend was shot in the back during the shooting, but was not among those killed.
“He’s really brave, and I hope he’s good in the hospital,” Weston said.
The young boy said he sheltered in place for several minutes, feeling what he believed to be gun powder on his neck, before he was brought into his school’s gym, where doors were locked and the group waited to be told it was safe to come out.
Weston said he was “super scared” when he learned his friend had been hurt, but said “I think now he’s OK.”
He recalled the moment he was released and saw his mom, who was outside of the church waiting.
“I was super happy because, like, I was scared that I wasn’t gonna see her, so I didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “Really, I was just in shock.”
Weston said the school had practiced for active shooter situations in the past, but noted “we’ve never practiced it in the church.”
“It was way different,” he said.
Ellie Mertens, a youth pastor at Annunciation School, was inside the church when the shooting happened.
“I was in one of the pews next to the window and the shooter was outside,” she said. “It was an automatic gun and I was near kids and we all got down.”
Mertens said the gunfire lasted what she believed was about two minutes before they were able to begin evacuating the building.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar told MSNBC one of her former employees has three children who attend the school and witnessed the horrifying events.
“Talking to her was probably one of the most upsetting things I’ve ever heard. Her daughter, who’s seventh grade, was in that church. These kids are doing an all school mass and had to watch several of her friends get shot — one in the back, one in the neck. And um, they all got down under the pews and she, her daughter of course was not shot, but her daughter ended up being the one to tell one of the dads of one of the other kids that his daughter had been shot. These are her friends. These kids all saw it happen,” Klobuchar said.
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