Boy shot in Minnesota church ask surgeon ‘would you say a prayer with me’

Moments after rifle blasts reverberated inside a Minneapolis church, Catholic school children wearing plaid jumpers and green polo shirts ducked into pews, some jumping atop friends to protect them from the carnage.

One girl, Lydia Kaiser, was struck shielding her “little buddy” while her father, the school’s gym teacher, helped usher children to safety and reunite them with their parents, according to a family friend organising fundraising for the family.

A 13-year-old boy named Endre, who was shot twice and rushed into surgery, asked the doctor, “Can you say a prayer with me?” his aunt said in a GoFundMe posting. Endre’s aunt said he’s now recovering, and the surgeon told the family that Endre had inspired their medical team.

Despite the horror carried out Wednesday by a shooter whose journal entries detail weeks of preparation and a fixation on harming children, stories of bravery and tragedy have emerged as families share their accounts. At least five children and one adult remained hospitalized Friday after the shooter fired 116 rifle rounds through the church’s stained-glass windows. The attack left two students dead and 18 people wounded, nearly all of them children.

Doctors and first responders in
Minneapolis this week called the students and teachers at Annunciation Catholic School heroes for protecting each other and following their active shooter training as the barrage of gunfire erupted during the first Mass of the school year.

Matthew Stommes, who had just walked his 12-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son into the church that morning, was sitting in a back pew when he saw flashes of gunfire and children screaming and covering their ears.