An attorney who witnessed a mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church said one of the helpless child victims walked up to him and said: ‘I want my mom.’
Patrick Scallen told the Daily Mail he was starting his day at his home office less than a block away from Annunciation Catholic Church when he suddenly heard about 15 gun shots sometime after 8:15 a.m.
Transgender shooter Robin Westman, 23, had just murdered two young children and injured four others, before turning her gun on herself.
The lawyer said he initially though someone had been working on a roof, but Scallen’s wife quickly told him the noise were gunshots coming from the church.
‘I instinctually just ran out the door and headed toward there,’ said Scallen, 71. ‘I got there less than a minute and the first thing I saw was a [gun] magazine on the sidewalk on the east side of the church.
‘It was a very eerie scene. There was no one really around. I saw one person, but he didn’t say much so I kept going to the front of the church. At that point, the kids were coming out.’
Scallen said police and emergency crews had not arrive to the scene yet when he walked up to the church grounds. He noticed some injured children and ran to them.
‘I immediately saw two kids who had a fair amount of blood on them, and I observed one child with a very serious injury to her head,’ he said. ‘Another child came up to me right away and said, “I’ve been hit in the neck and it hurts. I just want my mom.”
‘I held both their hands and tried to calm them down. I said, “Let’s sit down. I’m not going to leave you. You’re going to be alright.” And then one of the girls said she just wanted to hold my hand.’
Scallen said he spoke to another young boy who was also bleeding from his left arm. When Scallen asked if he needed help, the boy told the lawyer his classmates needed more assistance than him.
‘He was just a really brave little guy and he kept saying, “I’m OK, I’m OK.” He wanted me to know that I should pay attention more to the other kids.’
Scallen said he stayed with the three children and was able to call the mother of one of the girls he was looking after.
‘Fortunately, I was able to briefly talk to her mom and told her what had happened, and that her daughter had an injury to her head,’ the attorney said. ‘The mom was obviously in distress.
He continued, ‘I told her that, in my opinion, her daughter was going to be OK. I made sure mom knew her daughter wasn’t alone, but it was a short conversation because she was already on her way.’
Meanwhile, a 10-year-old boy called Weston Halsne told local TV station KARE that his friend, Victor, saved him.
‘There were shots fired and they shot through the stained glass windows,’ said Weston, who just started 5th grade. ‘It was really scary. My friend Victor saved me though because he laid on top of me, but he got hit. He is really brave and I hope he is good at the hospital.’
Scallen said it would be about five to eight minutes after he arrived on scene that he heard the police and ambulance sirens surround the church.
He said once emergency crews arrived, the three children were taken to ambulances.
Scallen said the little girl with the serious head wound is currently undergoing surgery.
Fourteen children were wounded in the shooting, two critically. All are expected to survive.
Once he saw the three children were being attended to, Scallen said he walked around the church and saw other bloodied children who were being carried out of the building.
‘I was a little shell shocked because I was on so much adrenaline initially,’ he said. ‘And then the moment set in and I walked around and spoke to a couple of parents who were in shock too. So, I kind of helped to direct the parents on who to talk to.’
Scallen said he did not see the shooter.
Court records viewed by the Daily Mail showed the shooter, who identified as a transgender woman, was formerly known as Robert and changed her name in 2020 when she was 17.
Court records also revealed Westman’s mother Mary worked at the school as an administrative assistant.
Westman turned the gun on herself after she shot through the stained glass windows of the church, where the children were attending Wednesday mass, celebrating their first week back to school.
‘The coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church,’ said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who added Westman acted in a ‘deliberate act of violence.’
During a press conference, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the shooting should not be used to persecute the transgender community.
‘Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community, or any other community out there, has lost their sense of common humanity,’ he said.
Scallen, who also attended Annunciation Catholic School, said students at his alma mater attend mass weekly.
‘They have a weekly mass for the kids on Wednesdays, so this person must’ve known that,’ Scallen said. ‘[The shooter] knew this was the opportunity to hurt the most people.’
O’Hara said Westman was armed with a riffle, a shotgun and a pistol. The chief also said the shooter barricaded at least two of the church doors.
Scallen said after years living away from South Minneapolis, he decided return and buy the house he grew up in from his mother. He raised his own kids there because it is an idyllic community with good Catholic values.
‘My whole family — my father, myself, my own kids — we all went to school there,’ Scallen said. ‘That school is a big deal in the community and it is truly a wonderful place. It is just so sad that its now been tarnished by the terrible, horrific act.’
Scallen, who is an associate attorney with WEX Health, Inc., said he doesn’t like to be labeled a ‘hero’ and added he did what ‘any parent and human’ would have done.
‘I saw them alone and scared and instinctually, I went over to comfort the children,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘Maybe someone would’ve eventually got to them, but it happened to be me, and I’m glad I was there to hold their hand.’
Heartbreakingly, an electric sign in front of Annunciation Catholic School still flashed a message hours after the deadly mass shooting: ‘A future filled with hope’.