The victims were sitting in pews inside a church located in connection to an elementary school when a person indiscriminately opened fire, says police chief Brian O'Hara at a press conference.
The situation is serious for several of the injured – 14 children between 6 and 15 years old, and three older adults, all over 80 years old.
The perpetrator, a 23-year-old, was heavily armed with two rifles and a pistol when they started shooting through the church's windows, and managed to fire all the weapons according to the police before the shooting was over.
Should never have happened
He shot at the children who were sitting in the pews, shot through the windows. And hit the children and the others inside the building, says Brian O'Hara.
It was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children, he continues and calls the shooting unimaginable.
The shooter is dead, according to the police after having taken their own life. However, they managed to post on social media from the scene – posts that were removed on the order of the FBI.
The exact motive is not clear, but the crime is being investigated as terrorism and hate crime directed against Catholics, according to FBI chief Kash Patel. The perpetrator's mother had previously worked at the school, according to CBS News.
The perpetrator was not previously in the crime register and had recently bought their weapons legally.
Do not talk about thoughts and prayers
It is impossible to put into words the tragedy. This should never be allowed to happen, said a visibly shaken mayor, Jacob Frey, at a press conference shortly after the shooting.
Do not talk about sending your thoughts and prayers right now, these children were literally in the middle of praying when the shooting started.
That the shooter, born as a man, identified as a woman and had changed their name to a more gender-neutral one, must not be used as fuel for more hate in society, said Frey later on Wednesday.
Everyone who uses this as an opportunity to blame trans people has lost all sense of decency and humanity.
The school has children from preschool to eighth grade. The alarm came around 8:30 in the morning, local time, during the first week of the fall semester and the mass was held as the introduction to the school year.
