The daddy of one of many two college students killed within the Annunciation Catholic College mass taking pictures urged mother and father to “give your children an additional hug” as he remembered his son, Fletcher Merkel.
“Yesterday, a coward determined to take our 8-year-old son, Fletcher, away from us,” Jesse Merkel stated throughout remarks exterior the college 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 pupil on the college. “Due to their actions, we are going to 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 stated his son cherished his household, buddies, fishing, cooking “and any sport that he was allowed to play.”
Jesse Merkel, the daddy of 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel, speaks exterior Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Aug. 28, 2025.
KSTP
“Whereas the opening in our hearts and lives won’t ever be stuffed, I hope that in time, our household can discover therapeutic,” the daddy stated. “I pray that the opposite sufferer’s household can discover some semblance of the identical.”
Fletcher and a 10-year-old have been killed and 18 individuals — together with 15 children — have been injured when the shooter opened hearth via the home windows of the Minneapolis college’s church on Wednesday morning. All of the injured victims are anticipated to outlive, police stated.
An undated picture of Fletcher Merkel.
Merkel Household
Jesse Merkel praised the “heroic” response to the mass taking pictures.
“Over the previous day, I’ve heard many tales accounting the swift and heroic actions of youngsters 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.”
He requested that individuals give their kids “an additional hug and kiss right now” and that his son is remembered “for the particular person he was, and never the act that ended his life.”
Written messages are left on hearts at a makeshift memorial at Annunciation Catholic Church after Wednesday’s college taking pictures, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, in Minneapolis.
Taylor Dunn/ ABC Information
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 college, and Westman’s mom beforehand labored within the parish, police stated.
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 Pictures
A motive stays beneath investigation, and police stated they’ve not recognized a selected set off for why the youngsters on the church have been focused.
Investigators decided that Westman “harbored an entire lot of hate in the direction of all kinds of individuals and teams of individuals,” and likewise “had a deranged obsession with earlier mass shooters,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara advised ABC Information Stay on Thursday.
