When rounds of bullets interrupted Mass at a Minneapolis church yesterday (Aug. 27), heroes who stepped up included brave, faith-filled students. Javen Willis, 13, an eighth grader at Annunciation Catholic School, said he fell to the floor and prayed and then tried to reassure his frightened classmates, knowing he’d be safe “with God on my side.”
The morning after the shooting, which claimed the lives of two children and injured 17 others, Willis and his mother appeared on the “TODAY” show. The teen said when bullets started flying through the stained-glass windows, “A lot of my classmates thought it was confetti and fireworks, but I didn’t think they’d have that during the middle of the church service.”
RELATED: Gunman Kills 2 Children, Injures 17 at Catholic School—‘These Kids Were Literally Praying’
Willis immediately “dropped down under the pew…and I prayed,” he recalled. But then he realized, “I can’t just sit here and focus on myself, knowing that with God on my side, I will be fine.” Although Willis was in “a state of shock,” he tried to “help out my fellow classmates, keep them calm and safe, and let them know that they will be okay.”
Eighth Grade Hero Was Recently Baptized
“TODAY” host Craig Melvin, who called Annunciation student Javen Willis “a young man of great faith,” noted that the 13-year-old was “just baptized last week.”
Through tears, mom Melissa Willis described the terrifying ordeal of hearing about a shooting and running toward her son’s school. “I just thanked God and cried and held [Willis],” she said of their reunion. “Thankfully, I was one of the [parents] who did get to see my kid when I got there.”
After Willis placed his arm around his mother, an emotional Melvin told her, “You have a special young man there.”
While leaving the church yesterday, Willis fist-bumped and thanked first responders who had raced to the scene. “I didn’t want to just sit there and think about [the shooting],” he said on national television. “So I just thanked the officers, because without them, who knows how much worse this could have been.”
Willis added, “It was bad in general, but it could have been way worse than that, if [police] didn’t show up when they did.”
Updates on the Shooting Victims and Suspect
On Thursday (Aug. 28), hospital officials said one critically injured student remains “touch and go,” while two children in serious condition are expected to survive. Dr. Jon Gayken, a trauma surgeon, said many victims’ gunshot wounds are “in places that were meant to kill people,” so fatalities could have been much higher.
Martin Scheerer, an EMS chief, said active-shooter training “paid off” because students “all laid on the floor, they covered each other up. That was key.”
Investigators continue searching for a motive. The suspect, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound behind the church. Born Robert Westman, the suspect graduated from Annunciation Catholic School in 2017. Mary Grace Westman, the suspect’s mother, retired as the parish secretary in 2021.
Robin Westman had no criminal history, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. The FBI is treating the shooting as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics,” according to Director Kash Patel.
Videos and notebooks linked to the suspect express violent tendencies, fondness for mass shooters, and antisemitic references. Westman also wrote how “shockingly easy” it was to buy guns.
