The 2 college students killed within the Annunciation Catholic School mass shooting had been an 8-year-old boy who liked to fish and prepare dinner and a 10-year-old lady identified for her laughter and kindness.
Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, died when the shooter opened hearth via the home windows of the Minneapolis faculty’s church on Wednesday morning, their households confirmed Thursday.
Fletcher’s father urged mother and father to “give your children an additional hug” as he remembered his son.
“Yesterday, a coward determined to take our 8-year-old son, Fletcher, away from us,” Jesse Merkel stated throughout remarks exterior the varsity on Thursday, publicly figuring out his son as one of many victims killed within the “mindless act of violence” carried out by a 23-year-old former scholar on the faculty. “Due to their actions, we’ll by no means be allowed to carry him, discuss to him, play with him, and watch him develop into the fantastic younger man he was on the trail to changing into.”
Jesse Merkel, the daddy of 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel, speaks exterior Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Aug. 28, 2025.
KSTP
Jesse Merkel stated his son liked his household, mates, fishing, cooking “and any sport that he was allowed to play.”
The daddy added, “Whereas the outlet in our hearts and lives won’t ever be stuffed, I hope that in time, our household can discover therapeutic. I pray that the opposite sufferer’s household can discover some semblance of the identical.”
An undated picture of Fletcher Merkel.
Merkel Household
Harper’s mother and father remembered her as a “shiny, joyful, and deeply liked 10-year-old whose laughter, kindness, and spirit touched everybody who knew her.”
“Our hearts are damaged not solely as mother and father, but additionally for Harper’s sister, who adored her massive sister and is grieving an unimaginable loss,” her mother and father, Michael Moyski and Jackie Flavin, stated in an announcement supplied to ABC Minneapolis station KSTP. “As a household, we’re shattered, and phrases can’t seize the depth of our ache.”
Written messages are left on hearts at a makeshift memorial at Annunciation Catholic Church after Wednesday’s faculty taking pictures, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, in Minneapolis.
Taylor Dunn/ ABC Information
Eighteen different individuals — together with 15 children — had been additionally injured within the taking pictures and are anticipated to outlive, police stated.
The victims’ households praised the response to the mass taking pictures.
Jesse Merkel stated he is heard many tales of the “swift and heroic actions of kids and adults alike, from contained in the church,” he stated. “With out these individuals and their selfless actions, this might have been a tragedy of many magnitudes extra. For these individuals, I am grateful.”
Harper’s mother and father stated they “additionally grieve for our fellow Annunciation household in mourning and for these harm” and that they’re “grateful for the workers and first responders who did a lot for therefore many yesterday.”
Jesse Merkel requested that individuals give their youngsters “an additional hug and kiss at present” and that his son is remembered “for the particular person he was, and never the act that ended his life.”
Harper’s mother and father stated it is vital that their daughter’s reminiscence “fuels motion” whereas imploring for significant change to stop an identical tragedy and “work towards a safer, extra compassionate world.”
“No household ought to ever must endure this type of ache,” they stated. “We urge our leaders and communities to take significant steps to handle gun violence and the psychological well being disaster on this nation. Change is feasible, and it’s vital — in order that Harper’s story doesn’t turn out to be yet one more in a protracted line of tragedies.”
Individuals go to a memorial to yesterday’s taking pictures victims in entrance of Annunciation Catholic Church on August 28, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Scott Olson/Getty Photographs
The taking pictures occurred throughout a Mass that marked the primary week of faculty, police stated.
The shooter — recognized as 23-year-old Robin Westman — died on the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police stated. Westman had attended the varsity, and Westman’s mom beforehand labored within the parish, police stated.
A motive stays below investigation, and police stated they’ve not recognized a particular set off for why the kids on the church had been focused.
Investigators decided that Westman “harbored a complete lot of hate in the direction of all kinds of individuals and teams of individuals,” and in addition “had a deranged obsession with earlier mass shooters,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara instructed ABC Information Stay on Thursday.
