MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday met with families and victims of a deadly shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis, and heard a heartfelt plea for action from at least one of those families.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, visited the Annunciation Catholic Church one week after an attacker opened fire during the first Mass of the school year for students of the nearby Annunciation Catholic School.
According to Vance’s office, the vice president and second lady Usha Vance met privately with family members of victims, the pastor of the parish and the school principal. They included the parents of the two children who were killed, Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, and families of some of the 21 people who were injured.
The couple also visited the church sanctuary, where the shootings took place, to pay their respects to the victims and their families, and laid bouquets at a memorial outside. They paused to read messages chalked on the church steps, including “God Heals The Broken Hearted,” “We Love you,” and “Show Love.”
“I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did,” Vance told reporters.
Parents plead for action
The Vances also went to Children’s Hospital, where several victims were treated, and met Lydia Kaiser, who is recovering from surgery. Her parents urged Vance to use his position to find real solutions to gun violence.
“We disagree about so many things,” her father, Harry Kaiser, a gym teacher at the school, told reporters, reading from a letter he wrote to Vance. “… But on just this one issue of gun violence, will you please promise me — as a father and a Catholic — that you will earnestly support the study of what is wrong with our culture — that we are the country that has the worst mass shooter problem?”
The parents did not take questions. But mother Leah Kaiser cited a proverb …