Father of child killed in Minneapolis church shooting shares emotional plea

The father of one of two schoolchildren fatally shot in a Minneapolis church spoke out for the first time on Thursday afternoon, imploring the shaken community to remember the eight-year-old by the life he led rather than by how he was killed.

Fletcher Merkel was killed on Wednesday morning when a shooter opened fire at a Mass that hundreds of students at Annunciation Catholic School attended, his father, Jesse Merkel, said Thursday, tearfully reading a statement outside of the church where his son was killed.

Merkel said Fletcher loved his family and friends and enjoyed fishing, cooking and playing any sport.

Because of the shooter’s actions, Merkel said, “we will never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play with him and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming.”

A 10-year-old child was also killed during the shooting, along with 15 other Annunciation students between the ages of 6 and 15 years old. Three adults — all in their 80s — were also shot. They have not been identified. Most of the victims are expected to survive, authorities said.

Even as Merkel mourned the loss of his son, he said he was thankful for the “swift and heroic actions” of adults and students inside the church without whom “this could have been a tragedy of many magnitudes more.”

Acts of heroism

Minneapolis doctors and law enforcement echoed Merkel’s sentiment throughout the day on Thursday, describing the grueling escape children and teachers endured, as well as the heroic rescue efforts that saved countless lives.

When one of the students who was injured during the shooting went in for a CT scan on Wednesday, she was visibly distressed.

Without hesitation, a nurse at the hospital who was not assigned to respond to the mass casualty event sat with the young girl throughout the procedure — even though safety protocols stipulate that medical staff should clear the room to prevent radiation exposure.

The nurse “put a little lead on, stayed there and held her hand and held her hair while she went through scanners so she didn’t have to go through alone,” Dr. Jon Gayken, one of the head trauma surgeons at Hennepin County Medical Center, said.

Several medical first responders — many of whom were stationed just blocks away from the church — have children enrolled at the Catholic school, officials announced on Thursday.

“Those are the types of things we witnessed yesterday,” Gayken said.

Despite the unimaginable tragedy of the day, Gayken said, there were far less casualties than there could have been.

Children follow active shooter training

Marty Scheerer, the chief of Hennepin County Emergency Medical Services, credited “unrecognized heroes,” like the children and teachers in the church who followed their active shooter safety trainings, despite the chaotic and incessant hail of gunfire.

Children “protecting other children” often “laid on the floor and covered each other up” while teachers ushered kids to safety.

“That was key,” Scheerer said.

The first police officer entered the church “without hesitation” just minutes after the 911 call reported the shooting, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.

Parishioners told O’Hara that it was “the first time that the children and others there had any sense that they might be safe and survive.”

When officers entered the church, they encountered children “that had blood on them from not because they were injured, but because of blood pressure from other kids,” Brian O’Hara said at a separate news conference later in the day.

“There’s going to be countless lessons of bravery, from young children all the way up to elders,” O’Hara said.

Related: Minneapolis police: Shooting at Catholic school has left 3 dead, including shooter, and 17 injured

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Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.