LIVE video from The Associated Press above — Click here to read more about the shooting

Two children were killed in the pews where they were worshipping on Wednesday by a shooter firing “cowardly” shooting at them during a back-to-school mass, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a press even outside Annunciation Catholic School.

O’Hara said the children killed with 8 years old and 10 years old. Both were killed while sitting in their pews for a worshipping service marking the first week of school.

The shooter, O’Hara said, was shooting from the outside of the church through the windows.

Seventeen others were injured in the shooting, including 14 children. O’Hara said two of the children were in critical condition.

The shooter shot himself and died, O’Hara said.

“The shear cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” said O’Hara, who said the shooter was armed with a rifle and a pistol.

Authorities earlier had said a man dressed in all black and armed with a rifle was reported at the scene of the shooting. Emergency services has requested a mass casualty response. President Trump has been briefed on the shooting, and the FBI is also responding to the scene.

“I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wrote in a post on social media. 

Minnesota’s senators also decried the shooting while offering thanks for first responders.

In other news, President Trump’s 50 percent tariff on imports from India went into effect Wednesday morning, weeks after he threatened “severe consequences” on trading partners that purchase Russian oil and gas.

The steep import tax comes as Trump continues to push Russia and Ukraine to come to a ceasefire agreement after meeting separately with the leaders of both nations earlier this month. The president, in his second term, has also soured on former ally Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Trump administration also placed several employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on leave late Tuesday after they attached their name to a dissent letter against the agency’s policies earlier this week. More than 180 current and former staffers signed on to the letter, but the majority of those signing on did so anonymously.

The president also escalated his rhetoric around combating crime in the nation’s capital, telling reporters Tuesday that he would push for the death penalty in murder cases in D.C. and suggested early Wednesday he could work with Congress on a “comprehensive” crime bill.

Trump and Vice President Vance are expected to meet for lunch later Wednesday.

Catch up:

• MAGA movement eyes expansion into governor mansions
• Russia’s claims of concessions on Ukraine’s security looking empty
• Parks and museums emerge as new culture war battlegrounds

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