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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.