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Newly released emergency dispatch recordings are shedding light on the terrifying moments after a gunman opened fire at a Minneapolis Catholic school on Wednesday as police and first responders rushed to the scene.
The hour-long audio recording captures dispatchers, police officers and other first responders coordinating a large-scale emergency response after gunfire erupted during a morning church service.
Early in the recording, dispatchers confirmed a suspected active shooter at the school’s church, calling for “all available assistance.”
“Minneapolis has a possible active shooter,” one responder said over the radio.
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Law enforcement officers gather outside the Annunciation Church’s school in response to a mass shooting, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)
As officers arrived, they reported multiple victims and called for urgent reinforcements. The recordings also reveal their efforts to keep ambulance routes open amidst growing chaos.
“Our primary goal here is traffic mitigation on 35…we need to get these ambulances out of here once they start rolling out with more victims,” one officer said.
“EMS is coming in. Multiple victims,” another dispatch voice confirmed.
Responders quickly requested an urgent need for medical supplies on the scene.
“Bring all the gauze that you have,” one officer radioed in.
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Police and medical teams work the scene after a shooting at Annunciation Church, which is also home to an elementary school, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Aug. 27, 2025. (Ben Brewer/Reuters)
Graphic details of injuries emerged throughout the audio, despite some segments being obscured by radio interference.
“We have two patients with gunshot wounds to the head in front,” one responder reported. “There’s also a critical patient in the rear of the church.”
Authorities also emphasized the need to prevent scene overcrowding.
“Anyone not on scene, do not respond… We need to preserve northbound 35W for ambulance traffic to HCMC,” one official warned.
“Don’t come to the scene unless you’re assigned. I need you at staging on Diamond Lake to start escorting ambulances.”
According to police, the shooting unfolded around 8:30 a.m. as the service was beginning. The shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, opened fire from outside the church, firing dozens of rounds through stained-glass windows. Westman, who was born Robert before later identifying as Robin, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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Families and loved ones reunite outside the police barricades after a shooting at Annunciation Church, which is also home to an elementary school, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Aug. 27, 2025. (REUTERS/Ben Brewer)
In total, 18 people were wounded, 15 of them children. Two students, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, were fatally shot as they sat in pews praying.
During a Thursday news conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara recounted the bravery of the first officers on scene.
“A Minneapolis police officer in regular uniform with no helmet, no SWAT gear ran into the church and was met by a parishioner who directed him towards where the gunman had been,” O’Hara said.
“The parishioner later told me that was the first time that he, the children and others there had any sense that they might be safe and survive.”
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The FBI confirmed that the shooting is being investigated as both a hate crime targeting Catholics and an act of domestic terrorism.
While a definitive motive has yet to be confirmed, officials say the suspect uploaded a manifesto to YouTube prior to the shooting. The video has since been removed from the platform.
O’Hara called the shooter a coward and described it as a targeted act of cruelty.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping,” he said. “The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”
The shooting has drawn comparisons to the deadly Covenant School attack in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2023, when a gunman killed three students and three adults. Don Aaron, spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, said it’s important to focus on the victims rather than the shooter’s “twisted planning.”
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“The stark reality is that mass shooters read about and study their predecessors before committing their own carnage,” he told Fox News Digital. “We know the shooter in the Covenant case did, as she planned her attack over a period of many months. She went through firearms training during that period without setting off alarms. She had no adverse contact with law enforcement prior to the day of the shooting.
“After a lengthy investigation, the shooter’s quest for notoriety was deemed to be the motive. She wanted her bedroom to be preserved and movies and books to be made about her. That is why it is so important to make the victims the focus of public statements in the days, weeks, and years after these horrible crimes. Most people, especially law enforcement, do not want to publicly focus on the shooter’s twisted planning so that it does not influence others.”
Stepheny Price covers crime including missing persons, homicides, and migrant crime. Story tips: stepheny.price@fox.com.