MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Rival gunmen shot at each other in a crowded downtown nightlife district in Alabama’s capital city Saturday night, killing two people and injuring 12 others in a chaotic street scene, police said.
The dead included a 43-year-old woman and a 17-year-old male, while five of the 14 people wounded were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, including a juvenile, police said.
No one had been arrested as of Sunday afternoon as police appealed to the public for information about the shooting and sorted through a complicated crime scene that involved multiple people firing at each other.
Police were still trying to piece together a motive for why the shooting started.
Police were called around 11:30 p.m. to what Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys described as a “mass shooting” that happened within earshot of officers on routine patrol in downtown Montgomery.
“This was two parties involved that were basically shooting at each other in the middle of a crowd,” Graboys said.
The shooters, he said, “did not care about the people around them when they did it.”
Seven of the 14 victims were under 20, and the youngest was 16, Graboys said. At least two of the victims were armed and the shooting began when someone targeted one of the 14 victims, Graboys said.
The gunfire prompted multiple people to pull their own weapons and start firing, Graboys said.
Multiple weapons and shell cases were recovered from the scene, Graboys said.
Few other details were available.
It was a particularly busy weekend in Montgomery, with Alabama State University’s homecoming football game that day at Hornet Stadium, the Alabama National Fair ongoing at Garrett Coliseum and the Tuskegee University-Morehouse College rivalry football game having just ended at nearby Cramton Bowl.
Mayor Steven Reed told reporters there were police units within 50 feet (15 meters) when the shooting broke out and that the shooters “had no regard for human life.”
Investigators were reviewing surveillance video and interviewing witnesses and potential suspects.
“We will do everything we need to gather every bit of evidence to chase down whoever is involved,” Graboys said.
Among the fundraisers that have cropped up in the wake of the deadly mass shooting at a Michigan church last weekend, one aims to raise money not for the victims but, instead, for family members of the accused shooter.
The organizer, David Butler, says he is not a member of the Grand Blanc Township ward of the Chuch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but is an “ordinary member” of the LDS church. Butler wrote that 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, who police have identified as the shooter, is leaving “behind a wife and children who must be grieving,” and that “one of the Sanford sons deals with serious medical challenges that require ongoing care, treatment, and specialized support.”
The deadly church attack in Grand Blanc, Michigan, killed four people and left at least eight others injured. Sanford drove his pickup truck through the front doors of the church, exited his vehicle and opened fire with an assault-style rifle at around 100 churchgoers, Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye said. Officials say he then set the church building on fire.
Sanford also died following an exchange of fire with police, Renye said. Based on conversations with the FBI director, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday the attacker was “an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith.”
Despite that, Butler described Sanford’s family as victims of the attack as well, saying the Biblical book of James “teaches us that ‘Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.’ The purpose of this GiveSendGo is to do that.”
The fundraiser, hosted by GiveSendGo, had raised over $334,000 as of early Friday morning against a stated goal of $500,000. The comments left by those donating money indicate many are also members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“We have been taught to be peacemakers and pray that your family is blessed and watched over during this difficult time,” one anonymous donor wrote. “May you feel the love of the Savior surrounding you always. You are beloved children of God.”
The Detroit Free Press reports that the shooter’s family was initially wary of the fundraiser, thinking it might even be someone impersonating the family, but eventually came around.
“It took my breath away, that this church is so forgiving and understanding and caring,” Sanford’s sister Katie Hamilton told the paper.
There are also several fundraisers aiming to help the families of those whose lives were taken or those who suffered injuries in the attack. GoFundMe has launched a verified hub to organize its fundraisers in that vein.
A decorated Marine veteran charged with firing an assault rifle from a boat at a waterfront bar in North Carolina, killing three people and wounding five, appeared subdued in court Monday as prosecutors said they may seek the death penalty.
Nigel Edge, 40, a Purple Heart recipient whose last assignment was with a Wounded Warrior battalion, made his first court appearance via video link after Saturday’s mass shooting. He’s charged with murder, attempted murder and assault.
Law enforcement officers “got the confession” from the suspect following his arrest, said North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Director Chip Hawley at a news conference Monday. He did not elaborate.
Five people remained hospitalized from the violence in Southport, a historic port town about 30 miles south of Wilmington. None of the victims’ identities have been released.
On Sunday, another 40-year-old former Marine crashed a pickup into a Michigan church during services, shot into the building and set it ablaze, killing four people and wounding eight. It was the second mass shooting in the U.S. in less than 24 hours.
‘Highly premediated’ attack
District Attorney Jon David said his office had yet to review medical records but described Edge as having “significant mental health issues” after experiencing a traumatic brain injury, according to WECT News.
Authorities said Edge piloted a boat close to shore, stopped briefly and opened fire at a crowd of vacationers and other patrons in what Southport Police Chief Todd Coring called a “highly premeditated” targeted attack.
This undated image provided by the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office shows Nigel Edge. (Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
He was arrested about a half an hour later after a U.S. Coast Guard crew spotted him pulling a boat from the water at a public ramp on Oak Island, where he lives.
Edge requested a court-appointed attorney and declined to comment during his appearance in Brunswick County Court, WECT News reported. He showed no obvious emotion as the district attorney said his office would review whether the death penalty is appropriate.
No plea was entered. Edge was ordered to remain in custody pending his next court hearing, scheduled for Oct. 13.
Name change and legal disputes
Edge, who was born in Suffern, New York, and changed his name from Sean DeBevoise in 2023, told police he was injured in combat and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, Southport’s police chief said.
Oak Island Police Chief Charles Morris said Edge was known to officers who frequently saw him by the town pier, and that Edge filed “numerous lawsuits” against the department and town in recent years. In one, he sought body camera video from an encounter after his boat trailer was vandalized.
Legal records indicate Edge turned to the court system to air a variety of perceived grievances.
Among a number of local and federal lawsuits, one from May 12 accused an area church of trying to make him commit suicide because “he is not LGBQT or a pedophile.”
In another, in 2024, he made numerous claims against his parents, including that they’d falsified a birth certificate “for a feral child.”
“Plaintiff suffers from war injuries and he suffers from delusions and PTSD. The VA needs to take care of him!!!” his mother, Sandra Lynn DeBevoise, wrote in response.
The DeBevoises could not be reached for comment Monday. Telephone listings could not be located.
In his petition to change his name, he gave this reason: “There have been alot of events in my life that I don’t understand. Therefore I do not trust my family, and I would feel more comfortable starting my life in a new path with a new name.”
Military deployment and combat injuries
Edge served in the military from 2003-2009, achieving the rank of sergeant in 2007, according to military records, which list his specialties as assault man and reconnaissance man. He had deployments in 2005 and 2006 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and was awarded a Purple Heart, a medal given to those wounded or killed in action. Other awards include a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Combat Action Ribbon (Iraq) and Iraq Campaign Medal with two bronze stars, which denote time spent in Iraq.
His last duty assignment was with Wounded Warrior Battalion East, II Marine Expeditionary Force in Camp Lejeune, records show. The battalions’ mission is to maximize recovery and ensure a smooth transition, whether returning to duty or civilian life, military officials said.
Details of his injuries were not released. A 2017 news story in the Wilmington Star-News described DeBevoise as a Marine sniper who said he’d been left for dead after being shot four times, including in the head, during a raid on a warehouse in Iraq in May 2006. The story detailed his efforts to raise money to start a commercial fishing business.
A public profile
A 2012 post on singer Kellie Pickler’s X account appears to show her with a picture of the suspect in a Marine uniform at the Country Music Awards. The photo, first reported by the New York Post, was captioned: “Me and my date (Sgt Sean Debevoise).”
Pickler could not be reached for comment.
Mental health and gun laws
Gov. Josh Stein said the weekend shootings were further proof of the need for improvements to “fix our broken mental health care system.”
Joey Whitaker from Holden Beach plays “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes in front of the American Fish Company following a fatal shooting that occurred here the night before, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in Southport, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
“We know that the vast majority of folks with mental health challenges pose no risk to others, but some can,” Stein said. “There are too many people in our communities with dangerous obsessions exhibiting threatening behavior who do pose risks.”
The North Carolina legislature passed a criminal justice reform bill last week in the wake of the stabbing death of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte commuter train that in part includes a greater emphasis upon defendants who need mental health examinations. Stein hasn’t yet said whether he’d let the bill become law or veto it.
The legislation lacks a “red flag” law pushed by Democrats for years that would allow a judge to take guns away temporarily from a person whom a judge has found to be a grave risk to the community or themselves. Stein said he thinks such a law is a good idea, although he didn’t know whether it would have been triggered in this case.
Breed reported reported from Raleigh, N.C. Thompson reported from Buffalo, N.Y. Gary Robertson contributed from Raleigh, N.C.
According to Renye, calls about the shooting at the Church of Latter-day Saints on McCandlish Road came in around 10:25 a.m., and officers were at the scene less than a minute later. Police said Sanford died at the parking lot of the church around 10:33 a.m.
Sanford lived around eight miles away from the church. Michigan State Police and a bomb squad were investigating his home throughout the evening on Sunday.
Investigators say there may be bomb making materials inside, though it’s unknown if anything was found.
Nearby residents told CBS News Detroit they couldn’t believe what happened in their small suburban community located about an hour northwest of Detroit.
“I really feel for the families, you know, even feel for the accused,” resident April Vann said. “It’s just a sad, really sad situation. You know, family’s lives are destroyed in 2.2 seconds.”
Jason Miller, another nearby resident, said something has to change.
“It’s troubling. A mile from home, you know? It’s obviously getting closer to us, right?” Miller said. “So when it starts getting close, you’re not just looking at the TV screen saying, ‘I feel bad. What’s going on?’ It’s here now, and that’s why we got to do something. It’s getting to be a problem.”
Several neighbors weren’t able to get inside their homes on Sunday afternoon. Michigan State Police troopers said they would be in the area into the evening.
President Trump said on Truth Social that Sunday’s shooting was “horrendous,” and that he would provide “full support” to state and local officials for the investigation.
Three people were killed and at least five more suffered injuries in a mass shooting in Southport, North Carolina, on Saturday night, authorities said.
Authorities quickly arrested a person of interest, Nigel Max Edge, a resident of the nearby town of Oak Island, according to police in the town and in Southport. At a news conference Sunday morning, Southport Police Chief Todd Coring said their investigation so far suggests the shooting was “highly premeditated.”
From a boat that he briefly parked outside of the American Fish Company, a waterfront bar and restaurant along the Cape Fear River, the shooter opened fire at around 9:30 p.m. ET Saturday into a crowd of patrons at the Southport establishment, according to city officials. He proceeded to flee the scene by boat and headed toward Oak Island, where U.S. Coast Guard crews found and detained him, Coring said.
Edge was loading a boat at a public boat ramp in Oak Island at the time of his arrest, said Brunswick County District Attorney Jon David, citing a Coast Guard report. He was held in custody overnight by the Oak Island Police Department and turned over to Southport Police, said Coring. Edge faces numerous charges, including three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of first-degree attempted murder, and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon and intent to kill, according to the police chief.
North Carolina’s state Bureau of Investigation is assisting Southport police with an ongoing probe, Southport officials said. They do not believe there is any lingering threat to the public in the aftermath of that arrest.
Authorities have not identified by name any of the patrons who were shot. They are expected to provide an update on their investigation at a news conference Sunday morning.
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and issues involving social justice. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
According to Renye, calls about the shooting at the Church of Latter-day Saints on McCandlish Road came in around 10:25 a.m., and officers were at the scene less than a minute later. Police said Sanford died at the parking lot of the church around 10:33 a.m.
Sanford lived around seven miles away from the church. Michigan State Police and a bomb squad were investigating his home on Sunday afternoon.
Investigators say there may be bomb making materials inside, though it’s unknown if anything was found.
Nearby residents told CBS News Detroit they couldn’t believe what happened in their small suburban community located about an hour northwest of Detroit.
“I really feel for the families, you know, even feel for the accused,” resident April Vann said. “It’s just a sad, really sad situation. You know, family’s lives are destroyed in 2.2 seconds.”
Jason Miller, another nearby resident, said something has to change.
“It’s troubling. A mile from home, you know? It’s obviously getting closer to us, right?” Miller said. “So when it starts getting close, you’re not just looking at the TV screen saying, ‘I feel bad. What’s going on?’ It’s here now, and that’s why we got to do something. It’s getting to be a problem.”
Several neighbors weren’t able to get inside their homes on Sunday afternoon. Michigan State Police troopers said they would be in the area into the evening.
President Trump said on Truth Social that Sunday’s shooting was “horrendous,” and that he would provide “full support” to state and local officials for the investigation.
Thomas Jacob Sanford of Burton, Michigan has been identified as the suspect in the mass shooting that killed two and injured eight others at a Mormon Church Sunday, Grand Blanc Police Chief William Renye said during a Sunday evening press conference.
The incident started with a car driving into the building before a fire broke out and the suspect began shooting at the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan around 10:25 a.m.
Renye said the 40-year-old suspect was killed in the parking lot of the church less than ten minutes after the first call came in for the shooting.
The suspect was engaged by two officers who were at the church when the incident occurred, one was a DNR officer and the other worked for Grand Blanc Police, Renye said during an earlier press conference.
Multiple agencies, including the FBI and ATF, are investigating the deadly shooting.
Of the eight surviving victims, one remains in critical condition while seven others are in stable condition, Renye said.
The identities of the injured and deceased have not yet been released.
In the Saturday morning sun, students, families and parishioners gathered beside the sanctuary at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis.
The stained glass windows are now repaired. A handwritten note on the door reads, ‘a future filled with hope’ and ‘Jeremiah 29:11’.
“We’re here to stand, to sing, to live, to nonviolently fight for Harper and Fletcher and all of us impacted on that day,” said Matt DeBoer, the principal of Annunciation Catholic School.
One month has passed since a gunman fired through the windows of that church, taking the lives of two children, 8-year-old Harper Moyski and 10-year-old Fletcher Merkel. A total of 21 others were hurt, including 18 students between the ages of 6 and 15. Three adults in their 80s were also injured.
School leaders say as of this week, all students have been released from the hospital.
“Our community is a community of love, connection and care,” said Deana Clapp, a dean of the school. “We have the courage to reclaim this sidewalk, our wiffle ball field and more. Eventually, we will reclaim our church.”
Joan McCoy, a parishioner of Annunciation for over two decades, says she was inside the church during the attack on Aug. 27th. While acknowledging the fear and tragedy, she finds strength in community.
“We were strong to begin with, but I think it’s making us even stronger now,” McCoy said on Saturday. “You just see the unification of everybody, the families that are coming together. I am just so touched by just the generosity of everybody.”
McCoy says the Annunciation community is one marked by love.
“Hopefully, we can be a light to everybody else that this is how you deal with tragedy, you pull together,” she said.
Catholics from across the Twin Cities joined Annunciation through prayer at a Saturday morning mass, gathering inside the Cathedral of St Paul.
As this community carries on, each at their own pace, DeBoer continues to encourage change in the wake of tragedy.
“There’s a lot of ways we can move our feet, and it’s through building meaningful and loving relationships that we can create the world that Harper and Fletcher believed in,” DeBoer said.
The principal recognizes that people will feel led to ‘move their feet’ or act in differing and unique ways.
“We need political changes, and there are many people here that are going to work at that, but we also need cultural change,” he said.
Annunciation students went back to school for the first time on September 16th, on a modified schedule. School leaders say students and staff will return full-time next week.
Some Annunciation families call for change
Some Annunciation families have spoken out about political change and gun control in the weeks following the tragedy at Annunciation.
On Saturday, gun safety advocates gathered at the Capitol for a rally called “Don’t Look Away”. Several groups were demanding a special session to ban assault weapons.
An Illinois man was allegedly trying to sell drugs at a Minneapolis homeless encampment when a dispute led to a shootout that killed a woman and injured six others, newly filed charges say.
The 31-year-old Illinois man was arrested on Wednesday. Charging documents say that when he was taken into custody, he was carrying two bags of suspected fentanyl and methamphetamine.
In a post-Miranda statement, the man said he was part of a group of drug dealers from Illinois who had turned to selling in Minnesota, specifically along the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis. According to the charges, he complained that the city had “shut down” the Greenway, and decided he should start selling drugs at the encampment on Lake Street.
The man said he had just spent two days in jail for allegedly driving under the influence, and when he was released around 6 p.m., he met up with his four associates with the intention of going to the Lake Street site, according to the complaint.
When the group arrived around 10 p.m., they learned that there was already a separate group selling drugs, the man said in his statement. The other group was yelling that they didn’t want anyone else to sell drugs, so the Illinois man said he and his group approached them.
He said he was carrying a pistol at the time; two others from his cohort were also carrying firearms, according to the complaint. They then had a face-to-face confrontation about who was allowed to sell drugs at the encampment.
The dispute soon led to a shootout when, according to the Illinois man, a man from the group that was already at Lake Street shot one of his associates in the chest. After that, “everyone else” started shooting, he said in his statement.
The complaint says he fired “once or twice” until his gun jammed and he fell backwards into another tent. He then got up and hopped a fence to run away. He added that he sold his gun to someone on Lake Street for $200.
According to the charging documents, investigators also spoke to a member of the Lake Street group, who claimed a member of the Illinois party fired first. The witness said that the woman who was shot was not part of the dispute and was instead inside of an adjacent tent when shots broke out.
The Illinois man was charged with first-degree riot and illegal possession of a firearm. The criminal complaint says he has multiple felony convictions in Illinois, including robbery, damage to property and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is currently in custody.
The encampment was shut down after the mass shooting; Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and the city council had been trying to clear the site, which is on a private lot, for months. The city had issued owner Hamoudi Sabri nearly a dozen public health notices for drug paraphernalia, open fire, excessive debris and lack of sanitation.
On Tuesday, a judge granted the city’s request for a temporary restraining order against Sabri. In response to the decision, Sabri said he still plans to hold the city “accountable,” and added his priority is “the dignity and safety of our unhoused neighbors.”
Note: The above video first aired on Sept. 24, 2025.
Minneapolis police arrested a 24-year-old man for a mass shooting last month that killed one and injured six others.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says officers took Trayveion Green into custody near the 600 block of First Avenue North at approximately 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday.
Green was charged with seven counts of second-degree murder, six of those counts being for attempted murder. He is the third person to be charged in the Aug. 26 shooting. Tiffany Martindale, 30, and Ryan Quinn, 33, were both charged with aiding an offender.
Minneapolis police say the shooting happened shortly before 1:30 p.m. at Clinton Avenue and East 29th Street, just east of Interstate 35. The suspected shooter fired approximately 30 rounds from a high-velocity 223 rifle, according to O’Hara.
Investigators identified the suspect vehicle as a gray Honda Civic with no rear license plate after looking at dashcam footage provided by a witness, according to the criminal complaint. Officers were able to make out the front license plate of the vehicle and learned it was registered to Quinn.
Police went to the Inver Grove Heights address listed on the registration shortly after the shooting and saw the Honda with the rear license plate reattached. Charges said Quinn was driving, and Martindale was in the front seat.
Quinn told officers that he and Martindale had picked up a man, known to him as Bino — later identified as Green — and driven him around the metro area, according to charges. He said Bino directed him to the area of the shooting, where they then “circled the block.” As they passed the area a second time, Bino told Quinn to stop the car.
Bino then got out of the car wearing a mask and holding a rifle, and started shooting into a crowd standing on the sidewalk, charges said. Bino got back into the Honda after shooting multiple rounds, which struck the seven people. Quinn and Martindale then dropped Bino off in north Minneapolis.
Charges say investigators were able to obtain subscriber information for Bino’s phone number that resulted in them identifying Bino as Green.
Green’s bail has been set at $2 million. His next court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 21.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara announced early Saturday afternoon that a 46-year-old man identified as Adam John Peterson had died earlier in the day.
The shooting happened around 11:10 a.m. on East Lake Street and Stevens Avenue. O’Hara said of the five men who were found hurt, one had “very serious” life-threatening injuries, three others had survivable injuries and another was grazed by a bullet.
No arrests have been made, as investigators are still trying to figure out what happened before shots were fired. Currently, police say they believe the shooting happened near the Greenway, and more shots were fired on the walkway near a highway off-ramp leading to both Lake Street and Stevens Avenue.
O’Hara previously said investigators cannot rule out a connection between the two shootings at the encampments. Both incidents are believed to have been perpetrated by more than one shooter. The first shooting is believed to be a “quarrel” that “escalated to gunfire,” while the second, he said, is related to a narcotics dispute.
The city of Minneapolis is opening a neighborhood assistance center for anyone impacted by recent shootings and violence.
“There has been a lot going on the community as far as violence that is traumatizing not just to the people directly impacted but to neighbors to the community in general,” said Chris Thokles, Director of Operations for the Minneapolis Health Department
Two Mass shootings in south Minneapolis sparked the city to pool its resources, from mental health support, human trafficking prevention as well as help with drug addiction and homelessness in one place.
“To really offer resources to folks in need not just recent victims to really anyone who needs resources right now,” said Thokles.
The Family Partnership is providing the space and its open to anyone who needs it.
“We have the Minneapolis Health Department mobile medical unit and folks can come and get some care for their physical self and meet with our nurses and nurse practitioner.
Inside we have all kinds of referrals we have snacks, water we have referrals for mental health we have referrals for our unhoused neighbors’ legal resources,” Thokles said.
Reg Chapman joined WCCO-TV in May of 2009. He came to WCCO from WNBC-TV in New York City where he covered an array of stories for the station including the Coney Island plane crash, the crane collapse on the city’s east side, 50 shots fired at motorist Sean Bell by New York Police, and a lacrosse team assault at Fairfield High School in Connecticut.
Students from St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists walk out to protest at the Minnesota State Capitol joining faith groups and gun control advocates in calling for a ban on assault weapons Friday, Sept. 5, 2025 following the mass shooting at Annunciation Church. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Lawmakers heard testimony from parents, first responders and faith leaders Monday as they considered a myriad of proposals to address gun violence in the aftermath of a shooting at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis that left two children dead and more than 20 others injured.
Gov. Tim Walz said he will call a special session on gun violence this fall, and the Senate Gun Violence Prevention Working Group is evaluating which proposals could be viable in a divided Legislature.
An assault weapons ban — and any other law regulating firearms — is unlikely to pass, given Republicans’ temporary one-seat majority in the House, and dissent within the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party over gun control bills. The House is expected to return to a tie after a Sept. 16 special election in Brooklyn Park to fill the seat left vacant by the murder of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman.
The working group heard testimony from five parents of Annunciation students who were hurt in the shooting, and from doctors who treated the injured students, all in support of a bill that would ban civilian ownership of “semiautomatic military-style assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines — those that hold more than ten rounds.
“It is up to our lawmakers to decide which weapon our next mass shooter is armed with,” said Malia Kimbrell, the parent of a third-grade student at Annunciation who was injured in the shooting.
Dr. Tim Kummer, medical director of community outreach for Hennepin EMS, responded to Annunciation in the minutes after the shooting. A 12-year-old girl had what appeared to be a small graze wound on her head — but below the surface, the bullet’s velocity created a shockwave, causing the child’s brain to bleed. Doctors had to remove a section of her skull.
“From a handgun, that wound would likely have only been a graze wound, but from a high powered rifle, it became a life threatening brain injury,” Kummer said. “Assault rifles turn survivable injuries into fatal ones.”
The working group also heard proposals that would do the following:
Establish an Office of Gun Violence Prevention within the Minnesota Department of Health.
Require gun buyers to complete a firearm safety course before purchasing a gun.
Create a public awareness campaign for Minnesota’s new “red flag” law, which allows judges to order the confiscation of weapons from a person deemed a danger to their own safety or others’.
Create a Civil Commitment Coordinating Division within the Office of the Attorney General, tasked with streamlining the civil commitment process and collecting data on outcomes for those who are civilly committed.
Require serial numbers on all firearms, including those that are 3-D printed or assembled at home.
Allow local governments to ban firearms from city-owned or leased buildings.
Require all gun owners to store their weapons unloaded and equipped with a locking device; or loaded or unloaded in a locked firearm storage unit or gun room.
Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, did not attend the meeting but submitted a bill to increase penalties on people convicted of impersonating a law enforcement officer. A man impersonating a police officer shot Hoffman and his wife Yvette before murdering Hortman and her husband Mark in the early morning hours of June 14.
Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, submitted to the working group an article he co-authored in 2019 with a natural medicine doctor who spread false information about COVID-19 before dying of the virus in 2021. The article attributes the rise in mass shootings to the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, a common type of antidepressant. That claim has been repeated by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, but psychiatrists and other experts have debunked a causal link between SSRIs and violence.
The working group will meet again Wednesday morning.
His family says they want him remembered as a boy with sparkling blue eyes and an infectious smile.
“You can grieve and give thanks, express loss and joy,” Pastor David J. Lose with Mt. Olivet Lutheran Chuch said. “We will remember Fletcher for the boy that he was and the joy and love he shared so freely.”
Speakers remembered who Merkel was, his prayers, his hopes and his dreams. They told stories about his athleticism and all the friends he had made in his 8 years. He loved fishing and football, and dreamed of playing in the NFL one day.
Fletcher Merkel
WCCO
“His gift to all of us was the chance to know him and love him,” Erin Shermak, Merkel’s aunt, said.
Loved ones say his story will be marked by a legacy only Merkel could leave behind.
“How will you keep Fletcher’s legacy alive in your life?” Will Sharpe, who spoke at the gathering, said. “How will it continue through yours? Fletcher, we love and miss you, and may your story live on through all of us.”
Organizers said over 1,400 people attended the gathering, many in bright-colored clothing to honor a boy who found joy in giving to others.
Instead of flowers, people are asked to contribute to the fund in his memory through a GoFundMe.
Loved ones will gather to remember 10-year-old Harper Moyski on Sept. 14. She also died in the shooting. Moyski’s family said that anyone who loved her is welcome to come together in her memory at the Lake Harriet Bandshell at noon.
This weekend marks the annual Taste of Greece festival hosted by St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church. The celebration boasts Greek food, drinks, dancing and music. It’s a parish that’s spent over 100 years worshiping in Minneapolis who aim to share Greek culture and faith with the surrounding community.
“This year our joy is mixed with deep sorrow. Last week’s horrific violence at Annunciation Church has affected our parish deeply,” their website states. “We stand with Annunciation in shared grief, prayer, and fervent hope.”
St. Mary’s Orthodox Church is led by Father Timothy Sas, who says Sophia Forchas, one of their parishoners was injured during the shooting at Annunciation. He says several generations of the Forchas’ family are deeply ingrained in the church community.
“They’re well loved, they’re well involved in everything we do,” Sas said. “We are certainly distraught in praying for her wellbeing for her recovery, not only for her of course for all the victims.”
Dr. Walt Galicich, a neurosurgeon with Hennepin Healthcare, said in a news conference on Friday that while Sophia is critical, her condition was “trending in the right direction.” Sophia Forchas’ father describes his 12-year-old daughter as brilliant, kind and full of life
21 people were injured during mass at Annuncation on August 27. Two children, Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel were killed in the attack. Sas says his parish remains in prayer for all impacted.
A portion of festival profits will support the Annunciation community. Around the festival a QR code also shares links to fundraisers for families still recovering. Orgainzers also hosted a blood drive on Friday for attendees.
“God remains attentive,” Sas said. “God is listening to our needs. God is present even in the midst of a tragedy.”
The festival is open Sunday September 7th from 12:00pm to 5:00 pm.
The father and surgeon of 12-year-old Sophia Forchas, one of the 18 children injured in the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, are set to give an update on her condition on Friday afternoon.
According to an online fundraiser organized by her family, Forchas was in critical condition after she was shot during a Mass packed with young students on Aug. 27.
Sophia Forchas’ father, Tom Forchas, and neurosurgeon Dr. Walt Galicich are scheduled to discuss her condition at 1:15 p.m. at Hennepin Healthcare. The hospital’s interim CEO, Dr. Tom Klemond, will also be at the news conference. You can watch it on CBS News Minnesota via Pluto TV, on Roku TV, the CBS News app or in the video player above.
Her mother is a pediatric critical care nurse at Hennepin Healthcare. She rushed to work to help the victims in the attack “before knowing it was her children’s school that was attacked, and that her daughter was critically injured,” according to the fundraiser.
“Sophia was born and raised in our St. Mary’s parish, immersed in the life of the Church together with her extended family of several generations who are devoted members of our congregation,” Father Timothy Sas of St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in Minneapolis said in a statement on Aug. 28.
Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, were killed in the shooting. Along with the 18 children, three adults in their 80s were injured.
Learn more about the victims here and click here to find out how to support them.
Note: The above video first aired on Aug. 28, 2025.
A man and a woman have been charged with aiding an offender in the south Minneapolis mass shooting on Tuesday that killed one person and injured six others, court records show.
Tiffany Martindale, 30, and Ryan Quinn, 33, were both charged in Hennepin County court on Friday.
The shooting happened shortly before 1:30 p.m. in the area of 29th Avenue South and Clinton Avenue South. Responding officers found one man fatally wounded and six others with gunshot wounds of “varying severity,” charges said.
Investigators identified the suspect vehicle as a gray Honda Civic with no rear license plate after looking at dashcam footage provided by a witness, according to the criminal complaint. Officers were able to make out the front license plate of the vehicle and learned it was registered to Quinn.
Police went to the Inver Grove Heights address listed on the registration shortly after the shooting and saw the Honda with the rear license plate reattached. Charges said Quinn was driving, and Martindale was in the front seat.
Quinn told officers that he and Martindale had picked up a man, known to him as Bino, and driven him around the metro area, according to charges. He said Bino directed him to the area of the shooting, where they then “circled the block.” As they passed the area a second time, Bino told Quinn to stop the car.
Bino then got out of the car wearing a mask and holding a rifle, and started shooting into a crowd standing on the sidewalk, charges said. Bino got back into the Honda after shooting multiple rounds, which struck the seven people. Quinn and Martindale then dropped Bino off in north Minneapolis.
Investigators say there were numerous calls between Martindale and Bino during the day of the shooting. Charges said Bino also provided Martindale with the address of a McDonald’s on Lake Street, around two blocks from the area of the shooting.
If convicted, Quinn and Martindale each face up to three years in prison and a maximum fine of $5,000.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a leading supporter of stricter gun laws, said hours after an Aug. 27 deadly Minneapolis school shooting that legislation enacted during the Biden administration led to a decline in mass shootings.
“There is something deeply wrong with a country that chooses to make running for their lives part of kids’ back to school ritual,” Murphy wrote on X. “When we finally passed a gun safety bill in 2022, mass shooting began to drop. But it was an unacceptably small start. We must do more.”
Murphy referred to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that then-President Joe Biden signed into law in June 2022 after mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school. The legislation combined gun safety provisions with mental health and school security resources and marked the first congressional gun control measure in nearly three decades.
In Minneapolis, Robin Westman fired through the windows of the Church of the Annunciation during a morning Mass to mark the beginning of the school year, killing two children and injuring 18 other people. Westman, 23, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Murphy’s spokesperson said the senator referred to the number of mass shootings as measured by the Gun Violence Archive, an online database that showed a decrease in mass shootings in 2024 compared with 2023. However, assessing whether the 2022 law caused the decrease is difficult to determine. Experts said the law might have played a role, but they are unaware of academic research addressing that question.
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“This is not to say that it may not have any impact — it’s virtually impossible to demonstrate any direct causality, but it’s important to keep in mind many other potential correlates of that drop, including, for example, an overall drop in crime, return to prevention and intervention strategies and so forth,” said Alex R. Piquero, a University of Miami professor of criminology and former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
There is no widely agreed upon definition for mass shootings. Different groups measure mass shootings in varying ways based on the number of people injured or killed. Some exclude gang violence or domestic violence from their counts and include only indiscriminate violence, when a shooter fires a gun at random in public. This means that mass shooting numbers can vary significantly depending on the metrics — showing anywhere from dozens or fewer incidents to hundreds in a given year.
The Gun Violence Archive defines mass shootings as events in which at least four people are injured or killed, excluding the shooter. As of Aug. 27, the archive found 642 mass shootings in 2022, 660 mass shootings in 2023, 503 in 2024, and 286 year-to-date in 2025.
Some other mass shooting trackers also show a decline from 2023 to 2024, although they have more narrow methodologies which result in smaller raw numbers.
Mass shootings have decreased but law’s impact unclear
Gun violence experts expressed caution about attributing the decline in mass shootings to 2022 law for several reasons:
The 2022 law had many components. It’s difficult to attribute the decrease to the law because the law “had so many different parts,” including money to support state-level “red flag” laws, said Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. Red flag laws allow courts to temporarily remove a person’s firearms if the person poses a danger to other people.
Proving a connection would involve analyzing changes collectively and over different initiatives over a much longer period of time, Schildkraut said.
Mass shootings are rare. Because mass shootings are statistically very rare, “It is hard to distinguish change due to something like the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act from random variation over time,” said Veronica Pear, assistant professor at the Centers for Violence Prevention at University of California, Davis.
Terry Schell, a senior behavioral scientist who studies firearms and violence at Rand Corp., a nonpartisan think tank, said, “It is exceptionally difficult to determine, empirically, if any national law caused a particular shift in a rare outcome. Even if the mass shooting rate dropped to zero in the years following passage, all that would tell us is that SOMETHING happened in 2023 to reduce mass shootings. It could be this law; it could be something totally different.”
Schell said to make claims about causation requires data that allows researchers to rule out alternative causes.
Our ruling
Murphy said, “When we finally passed a gun safety bill in 2022, mass shooting began to drop.”
He pointed to Gun Violence Archive data showing 503 mass shootings in 2024, a decline from 660 in 2023. Midway through 2022, Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law.
Gun violence experts said they are unaware of research showing the impact of the law on mass shooting numbers. They cautioned that the law had many components and assessing its impact on mass shootings is difficult.
The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. We rate it Half True.
PolitiFact Staff Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact-check.
One of the young victims of Wednesday’s deadly mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school remains in critical condition Thursday, at the same hospital where her mother works as a pediatric critical care nurse.
Twelve-year-old Sophia Forchas was in her first week as a seventh-grade student at Annunciation Catholic School in southwest Minneapolis when the attack occurred during a Mass marking the first week of school at the adjoining Annunciation Catholic Church, according to a GoFundMe page which has raised more than $117,000 within 24 hours.
Forchas’ own mother rushed to work on Wednesday morning at Hennepin Healthcare in downtown Minneapolis to help with the influx of victims, “before knowing it was her children’s school that was attacked, and that her daughter was critically injured,” the GoFundMe page states.
Father Timothy Sas of St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in Minneapolis also released a statement about the Forchas family, who are parishioners.
“Sophia was born and raised in our St. Mary’s parish, immersed in the life of the Church together with her extended family of several generations who are devoted members of our congregation,” Sas wrote. “Sophia’s family and I are truly thankful for the immediate embrace of prayers coming from literally all parts of the world.”
Sas said the public is invited to St. Mary’s on Wednesday at 6 p.m. for a special prayer service for Forchas and “all the victims and all the children and staff of Annunciation Catholic School.”
Nineteen people were shot, 16 of whom are children. Two of the victims, ages 8 and 10, died from their injuries. Three of the victims are parishioners in their 80s. All are expected to survive, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
Sophia Forchas
GoFundMe
Forchas’ younger brother was also present during the attack but was not injured.
“Though he was physically unharmed, the trauma of witnessing such a terrifying event — and knowing his sister was critically injured — is something no child should ever experience,” the GoFundMe page states.
Forchas underwent emergency surgery and is still recovering in the ICU.
“Her road ahead will be long, uncertain, and incredibly difficult — but she is strong, and she is not alone,” the GoFundMe page states.
Stephen Swanson is a web producer at CBS News Minnesota. Stephen was a floor director for a decade before moving to the WCCO-TV newsroom in 2011, where he focuses on general assignment reporting.
