A parent hugs her son during an active shooter situation at the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, Minn., on Wednesday. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A shooter opened fire with a rifle Wednesday through the windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis and struck children celebrating Mass during the first week of school, killing two and wounding 17 people in an act of violence the police chief called “absolutely incomprehensible.”

Armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, 23-year-old Robin Westman approached the side of the church and shot dozens of rounds through the windows toward the children sitting in the pews during Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School just before 8:30 a.m., Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at news conferences. He said the shooter then died by suicide.

The children who died were 8 and 10. Fourteen other kids and three octogenarian parishioners were wounded but expected to survive, the chief said.

Fifth-grader Weston Halsne told reporters he ducked for the pews, covering his head, shielded by a friend who was lying on top of him. His friend was hit, he said.

“I was super-scared for him, but I think now he’s okay,” the 10-year-old said, adding that he was praying for the other hospitalized children and adults.

Halsne’s grandfather, Michael Simpson, said the violence during Mass on the third day of school left him wondering whether God was watching over.

“I don’t know where He is,” Simpson said.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the shooting is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.

O’Hara said police hadn’t yet found any relationship between the shooter and the church, nor determined a motive for the bloodshed. The chief said, however, that investigators were examining a social media post that appeared to show the shooter at the scene and contained “some disturbing writings.”

“The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” said O’Hara, who gave the wounded youngsters’ ages as 6 to 15. He said a wooden plank was placed to barricade some of the side doors, and that authorities found a smoke bomb at the scene.

Westman’s uncle, former Kentucky state lawmaker Bob Heleringer, said he did not know the accused shooter well, last saw Westman at a family wedding a few years ago, and was confounded by the violence: “It’s an unspeakable tragedy.”

“We’re praying for my sister and her other children and also, obviously, for these poor, poor children,” Heleringer said by phone.

The police chief said Westman did not have an extensive known criminal history and is believed to have acted alone.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the violence had forever changed the students’ families and the city along with them.

“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now,” Frey said at a news conference. “These kids were literally praying.”

Bill Bienemann, who lives a couple of blocks away and has long attended Mass at Annunciation Church, said he heard as many as 50 shots over as long as four minutes.

“I was shocked. I said, ‘There’s no way that could be gunfire,'” he said. “There was so much of it. It was sporadic.”

The police chief said officers immediately responded to reports of the shooting, entered the church, rendered first aid and rescued some of the children hiding throughout the building as other emergency responders arrived.

Frey and Annunciation’s principal said teachers and children, too, responded heroically.

“Children were ducked down. Adults were protecting children. Older children were protecting younger children,” said the principal, Matt DeBoer.

Amid a heavy uniformed law enforcement presence later Wednesday morning, children in dark green uniforms trickled out of the school with adults, giving lingering hugs and wiping away tears.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz lamented that children just starting the school year “were met with evil and horror and death.” He and President Donald Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff on state and federal buildings, respectively, and the White House said the two men spoke.

Monday had been the first day of the school year at Annunciation, a 102-year-old school in a leafy residential and commercial neighborhood about 5 miles south of downtown Minneapolis.