Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance visited Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis Wednesday to pay their respects to the victims of last week’s mass shooting.
The Vances laid flowers outside the church, where just a week ago a gunman killed two children, 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski, and injured 21 other people who were attending a school Mass.
.@VP and @SLOTUS lay flowers at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, paying respects to the victims of last week's tragedy 🙏 pic.twitter.com/YFnYPrTsLQ
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 3, 2025
The vice president and his wife then held “a series of private meetings to convey condolences to the families of those affected by the tragedy,” according to the White House. This included a visit to Children’s Minnesota where the Vances met with Lydia Kaiser, a student who was injured in the shooting “while protecting her little ‘buddy’ during the first Mass of the school year,” a GoFundMe says.
“Her father, our community’s beloved gym teacher, was also in attendance and helped to secure the room, to keep children safe, and stuck with them all until they were reunited with their families, even while his daughter was entering the emergency room. Lydia and Harry are 2 heroes in our midst,” it adds.
While speaking to reporters at the airport, Vance indicated that he met with the families of Harper and Fletcher as well.
“I’ve never had a day that will stay with me like this day did,” he said. “These parents, in the midst of the worst grief of their entire lives, they opened up their lives and they opened up their hearts and they made me part of it.”
"I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did," says @VP in Minneapolis.
"These parents — in the midst of the worst grief of their entire lives — they opened up their lives. They opened up their hearts." pic.twitter.com/XqZXKkPLYk
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 3, 2025
He then asked all Americans to pray for Sophia Forchas, who was critically injured in the shooting.
“If you’re the praying type, say a prayer for this innocent girl who’s actually in surgery right now, that the swelling will go down, that she will be OK because she’s still in a fight for her life,” Vance said. “Every single family to a person is desperate that the death toll, which currently is at two, stays at two.”
I just left Minneapolis, where I was honored to meet with a number of grieving famlies and hear about their beautiful children–in particular Harper (10) and Fletcher (8), who died in the Annunciation school shooting. I also met another beautiful girl who is recovering well,… pic.twitter.com/mHYWuzl3RF
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 3, 2025
The vice president said he will try to honor the victims of the shooting by being a better father to his own children and “making sure that they know their dad loves them.”
“There are two families who are not going to get that opportunity ever again.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
