VP Vance to meet with families of schoolchildren after church shooting in Minneapolis

Minneapolis – Vice-president JD Vance planned to visit Minneapolis on Wednesday to meet families and victims of a shooting in a Catholic church that killed two schoolchildren and injured 21 people.

Security was heavy outside the Catholic Church Annunciation before Vance’s visit, which is Catholic, and the second Lady Usha Vance. The visit occurs a week after an attacker opened fire during the first mass of the school year for students of the Catholic School Neighboring.

“They will hold a series of private meetings to exercise condolences to the families of people affected by the tragedy,” the White House said in a statement.

The White House published a few other details before the visit.

Achbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis said on the public radio of Minnesota earlier Thursday that he had apparently not the invitations and would not be there. But Hebda, who met the families himself, welcomed Vance’s visit.

“I was happy to learn that parents were interested in meeting the vice-president,” Hebda told MPR. “I know they also met other politicians, and I think it gives them the opportunity to put a face on this great tragedy.”

Hebda also said that it was edifying to see all the prayers and other supporters of Pope Leo and other members of the clergy, the community and beyond for all families whose children attend anuciation.

“For them to have the opportunity to share, closely, with the vice-president and his wife, as they did with our governor and our senator and our mayor, I think it is an excellent opportunity to educate what happened, then start to plan the way we can go ahead,” said the archbishop.

The shooter, Robin Westman, 23, died by suicide after having fired 116 shots through the stained glass windows of the church last Wednesday while hundreds of students and others gathered for worship.

While the investigators say that they did not find a clear reason for the attack, the shooter had links with the school. Westman’s mother worked for the parish before retiring in 2021, and Westman attended school.

The American lawyer, Joe Thompson, said last week that the shooter had left videos and writings which “expressed hatred towards almost all imaginable groups” but admiration for mass killers.

The school has not yet announced when the lessons will resume or when a ceremony will be held to recognize the church essentially so that worship can resume it. The church celebrated its masses last weekend in the school gymnasium.