(MINNEAPOLIS) — The Minneapolis Police Department’s response to Wednesday’s deadly church shooting showed significant improvements in how law enforcement handles mass casualty events, according to a former police chief who managed a similar crisis.
Jarrod Burguan, who led the response to the 2015 San Bernardino terror attack, praised Minneapolis authorities for their clear communication and fast response to the Annunciation Catholic School shooting that killed two children — an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old — and left 18 others injured.
“Minneapolis PD has done a very good job in this case,” Burguan told ABC News on Thursday. “Chief O’Hara was tremendous. He was very clear in his press conferences and gave very good information. For the most part, this has not been an incident that had a lot of false information getting out there.”
The FBI is investigating the attack as potential domestic terrorism and a possible hate crime after the shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, opened fire through church windows during a Mass marking the first week of school. Westman died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Burguan told ABC News that the coordinated response between local police and federal authorities reflects improvements made since previous mass shootings.
“We are better today than we were three years ago, five years ago, 20 years ago,” he said, while acknowledging the tragic reality that schools now require enhanced security measures.
Drawing on his experience in the December 2015 San Bernardino attack, in which 14 people were killed and 22 were injured, Burguan explained how federal and local agencies cooperate in such investigations.
“The reality is, on the ground, the FBI agents and the leadership in Minneapolis, as well as Minneapolis PD and the surrounding agencies… they really work well together,” he said.
However, Burguan expressed concern about potential warning signs that may have preceded the attack.
“For somebody to have been living that life, people in and around that suspect had to have known something was off,” he said, noting the suspect’s “hatred of institutions in this country, whether it was the church.”
Burguan warned that extensive coverage of mass shootings could motivate copycats who glorify such violence.
“You hear a story of somebody like this that somehow seemed to idolize people that perform this act,” he said. “That is very, very disturbing to think that even in light of coverage like this and the anger and the community frustration that happens, somebody might be sitting back going, ‘Well, this was a good thing.’ That’s frightening.”
(LEWISTON, Maine) — One of Maine’s largest abortion care providers said it will have to dramatically cut services after a federal judge ruled earlier this week that the Trump administration is not required to restore Medicaid funding.
Under H.R.1 — the mega-bill that President Donald Trump signed into law last month — family planning and abortion providers are not allowed to collect Medicaid funding if they received at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in 2023.
The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) sued the Trump administration on behalf of Maine Family Planning — the largest network of sexual and reproductive health care clinics in the state — arguing that the provision violates the Equal Protection clause under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
However, Judge Lance Walker ruled that because Roe v. Wade was overruled in June 2022, ending the constitutional right to abortion, Congress can “withhold federal funds and otherwise disassociate from conduct that is not enshrined.”
Medicaid funds are not used to cover abortion costs in most circumstances, but they are used to pay for other health care costs. George Hill, president and CEO of Maine Family Planning, said the network will have to cut services or drastically reduce the number of patients they can see.
“Right now, we’re not accepting new Medicaid-insured patients for primary care,” he told ABC News. “We are going to have to stop providing primary care to Medicaid enrolled patients, probably by the end of September.”
Hill said Maine Family Planning is not billing Medicaid for current Medicaid patients, but added that continuing to do so is likely not a sustainable option.
“It’s costing us, in lost revenue, about $165,000 a month,” Hill said. “That clearly is unsustainable. We’re spending a good deal of time getting the word out about the quality of the care that we provide, why it’s necessary in the areas that we provide, to a wide range of private donors. But … it’s not sustainable over the long term.”
Maine Family Planning has been receiving about $1.9 million a year in reimbursements, which makes up about 20% of its budget, Olivia Pennington, director of advocacy and community engagement at Maine Family Planning, told ABC News.
Pennington said the provision in the mega-bill was intended to prevent federal dollars from reaching Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S., but the Maine agency appeared to be caught in the crosshairs.
“We knew there was a chance we were going to get caught up in this attempt to defund Planned Parenthood,” she told ABC News. “We weren’t sure exactly what that was going to look like, but July 4, when that bill was signed, we were acutely aware that, as of that day, we had to stop billing MaineCare, which is what we call Medicaid here in the state of Maine.”
Pennington said that although Maine Family Planning does provide abortion care, the clinics also provide contraceptive care, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and HIV testing and prevention.
Maine Family Planning can also refer patients to other services, such as care for HIV treatments, Pennington said.
Additionally, at three of Maine Family Planning’s 18 brick-and-mortar clinics — mainly in rural and unserved areas — staff provide primary care. The agency also has a mobile medical unit for those who can’t make it to a physical location.
Pennington said the clinics are in areas with no public transit infrastructure and that the next closest clinic for patients may be as far as three hours away.
“There’s a lack of access to primary care in those areas,” she said. “For most of our patients, we know that we are the first and only health care provider they see in a year.”
Pennington added that half of all patients not receiving abortion care at Maine Family Planning are covered by Medicaid. Currently, the clinics are seeing those patients free of charge.
However, she is worried that not having Medicaid funding restored will result in a domino effect that could harm all patients, including those not on Medicaid.
“If MaineCare patients can no longer receive services at their local Maine Family Planning, other providers are going to be forced to absorb those patients,” Pennington said. “And because there’s already such a shortage of family planning and reproductive health care providers in the state, it will become much harder for everyone in the state to get health care.”
She went on, “We are continuing to see these patients free of charge because we believe that they deserve access to high-quality health care, but that’s not a sustainable option.”
Astrid Ackerman, staff attorney at CRR, told ABC News the team is prepared to explore every legal avenue to restore Medicaid funding for Maine Family Planning. She said the decision by the court this week is putting the health care of “thousands” of people in Maine in jeopardy.
“What is really happening is that it’s a way for the Trump administration to punish and go after abortion providers,” Ackerman said. “Medicaid funding has not … covered abortion, besides just some very limited exceptions, for decades — like they cannot use Medicaid funding for abortion generally.”
“So then the Trump administration, what they’re doing is trying to say, ‘Look, you are providing abortions. I know that I’m not giving you federal funding for abortions, but nonetheless, I’m going to punish you for providing abortion.’ Again, in a state [like Maine] where abortion is protected,” she added.
ABC News reached out to the HHS asking for a request for comment.
Police are searching for three male suspects in the fatal shooting of a 69-year-old with a walker in Harlem, New York, on Aug. 27, 2025. WABC
(NEW YORK) — Police are searching for three male suspects in the fatal shooting of a 69-year-old with a walker in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, according to the New York Police Department.
Robin Wright, 69, was shot in the face once by an unidentified person, the NYPD said.
Police responded to the report of a person shot in the vicinity of East 110 Street and Madison Avenue on Wednesday afternoon, according to police.
Wright was found with a gunshot to the face and was transported to Mount Sinai Morningside in critical condition, where she was later pronounced dead, authorities said.
Police have not made any arrests in the shooting and have not released any further description of the suspects, police said.
Police told WABC that a man who had just been mugged by two other men chased after them and started shooting. One of those bullets struck the victim, who never saw it coming, officials said.
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, according to police.
Dozens of first responders crowd the street in front of Annunciation Catholic Church that was the scene of a shooting that killed two children and wounded seventeen other people on Wednesday, August 27, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minn. (Renee Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)
(MINNEAPOLIS) — As police search for a motive in the deadly mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School, Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP obtained a yearbook entry from the school describing suspected shooter Robin Westman as a member of the class of 2017.
“We believe he had been a student here,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told KSTP, adding, “His mom had worked here in the past.”
Westman, 23, who was born Robert Westman, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. Driver’s license information reviewed by ABC News described Westman as a female, born on June 17, 2002. A name change application for a minor born on the same date, June 17, 2002, was approved by a district court in Minnesota in 2020, changing the name of a Robert Westman to Robin Westman, explaining the minor child “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
Two children — an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old — were killed and 17 people were injured when the shooter opened fire through the windows of the Minneapolis school’s church on Wednesday morning.
Fourteen of the injured victims were children ages 6 to 15, and the three adults who were shot were parishioners in their 80s, police said.
All injured victims are expected to survive and some victims have already been released from the hospital, O’Hara said late Wednesday.
Officers recovered three guns — one rifle, one shotgun and one handgun — at the scene, all of which are believed to have been fired in the attack, police said. All were purchased legally by Westman, police said.
Electronics related to Westman have been recovered, but no other firearms, the chief said.
The suspect had no criminal history, police added.
O’Hara said additional police patrols will be provided as children return to school across the Minneapolis area.
ABC News’ Mariama Jalloh, Pierre Thomas, Jack Date, Luke Barr, Aaron Katersky, Sasha Pezenik and Michael Pappano contributed to this report.
Police work the scene following a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School on August 27, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
(MINNEAPOLIS) — When Pat Scallen heard gunshots around the corner from his Minneapolis home, “I didn’t know exactly what it was at first, but after about the 10th shot, I knew something was wrong,” he recalled.
Scallen raced to the Annunciation Catholic School, where he said he saw a magazine on the ground by the church.
“It was eerily quiet. And then I immediately turned and ran to the front of the church, and right at that time everyone was coming out. And it was chaotic,” Scallen told “Good Morning America” on Thursday.
Streaming from the church were children suffering emotional and physical wounds, he said, adding that he saw a boy and a girl who had been shot in the head as well as a girl shot in the neck.
“They were very frightened. They wanted their mom and dad,” he said. “And I just, I sat them down and just tried to keep them calm, and I was watching them close to see if there’d be any change in their status.”
Scallen said the girl shot in the head asked him, “Please just hold my hand.”
“I did,” he said.
An 8-year-old and 10-year-old who were sitting in pews were killed and 17 others were injured in the Wednesday morning mass shooting, police said. The shooter opened fire through a church window during a Mass that marked the first week of school.
Fourteen of the injured victims were children ages 6 to 15, and the three adults who were shot were parishioners in their 80s, police said. All of those injured are expected to survive, police said.
The shooter, identified by the FBI as 23-year-old Robin Westman, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. A motive remains under investigation.
Scallen said the Annunciation Catholic School is “one of the premiere schools in the city and state” and is “integral to the neighborhood.”
“There’s a spirit here, and I know they’ll be grieving for awhile, but this place, they’ll come back,” he said.
A general view shows the skyline of Philadelphia at sunset from South Street Bridge on Schuylkill river. (Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(PHILADELPHIA) — More than 26 years after a man was gunned down outside his Philadelphia home in what police described as a mob-style killing, a suspect was arrested this week, a block from the crime scene, authorities said.
Federal prosecutors announced on Tuesday the arrest of 60-year-old Richard Leidy in the 1999 ambush that left Guerino “Gino” Marconi dead and his 31-year-old girlfriend, Patricia Miley, wounded.
According to documents filed in Philadelphia federal court, Leidy is charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of a prohibited firearm. Leidy is also charged with simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, possession of an instrument of crime with intent and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Leidy was arrested on Monday at his home in South Philadelphia, which is about a block from where the fatal shooting of Marconi unfolded on South 20th Street in South Philadelphia, authorities said. It was unclear if Leidy was living at the same residence when Marconi was killed.
Leidy was arraigned on the charges on Tuesday, but did not enter a plea, according to court records. A preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for Sept. 15, which, according to court documents, will be Leidy’s 61st birthday.
Details of what led investigators to arrest Leidy in the cold-case killing were not immediately disclosed.
Leidy is being held in federal custody without bail.
At the time of the killing, 42-year-old Marconi was described in media reports as a low-level associate of Joseph Salvatore “Skinny Joey” Merlino, then reputed boss of the Philadelphia crime family.
On the night of April 10, 1999, Marconi and Miley were both shot by an assailant wielding a rifle, who confronted them outside Marconi’s home, the Philadelphia Police Department said at the time.
Marconi was shot once in the head and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, the Philadelphia Daily News reported at the time. Marconi’s girlfriend, Miley, was shot three times in the attack and critically injured, but survived the shooting, the Daily News reported.
Before fleeing the scene, the gunman torched a van that was parked in front of Marconi’s home and set other vehicles on fire, according to police.
A motive for the shooting was not immediately disclosed.
Marconi, who grew up in South Philadelphia, owned an auto body shop in South Philly at the time of his death, the Daily News reported, citing property records.
The newspaper said Miley worked as a billing clerk for a Philadelphia law firm.
Sign for “Alligator Alcatraz” at the entrance to the detention center in the Everglades, Florida, United States, on August 24, 2025. (Jesus Olarte/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(OCHOPEE, Fla.) — The controversial immigration facility in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” will soon have no detainees in it, according to an email obtained by ABC News.
The email was sent by Kevin Guthrie, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, to the interfaith community.
“We are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days,” Guthrie wrote.
The detention center was the subject of lawsuits, one of which halted new detainees from being transported to the facility.
President Donald Trump and top Homeland Security brass visited the facility, which they have testified in court is expected to cost about $400 million.
The South Florida Interfaith Community wrote to the FDEM about allowing access to faith services at the facility in recent days.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced that his administration is opening a new immigration detention facility in the state dubbed “Deportation Depot.”
(RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif.) — Officials in California said they have a “pretty strong indication” on the location of the remains of Emmanuel Haro, the 7-month-old child who has been missing for nearly two weeks.
Emmanuel was reported missing on Aug. 14 at approximately 7:47 p.m. local time after his mother “reported being attacked outside a retail store on Yucaipa Boulevard,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Aug. 15.
“This was preventable in numerous ways,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said in a press conference on Wednesday.
In the press conference, authorities confirmed the search for Emmanuel continues. They believe the child was “severely abused over a period of time” and that both parents “would have been aware of that abuse,” according to Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin.
“The filing in this case reflects our belief that baby Emmanuel was abused over time and that eventually because of that abuse, he succumbed to those injuries,” Hestrin said.
The child’s parents, 32-year-old Jake Mitchell Haro and 41-year-old Rebecca Renee Haro, were arrested at their residence in Cabazon for the murder of the baby, officials said last week. The two have been charged with murder and making a false police report, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said on Tuesday.
Officials on Wednesday said that the child’s father — whom they described as an “experienced child abuser” — “should have gone to prison” due to previously abusing another child he had with his ex-wife back in 2018, but a judge at the time granted him probation, a ruling the Hestrin called an “outrageous error in judgement.” Authorities said that the child in that case has been left bed-ridden.
“If that judge had done his job as he should have done, Emmanuel would be alive today,” Hestrin said.
The parents appeared in court on Tuesday for less than five minutes, with a $1 million bail set for both. Their arraignment will continue on Sept. 4.
Prior to the press conference, officials said the child is presumed dead and they had been searching for his remains.
On Sunday, officials conducted another search for the 7-month-old “along the westbound shoulder of the 60 Freeway, near Gilman Springs Road, in Moreno Valley,” with the father of the child and cadaver dogs accompanying detectives. That search concluded after “Emmanuel was not located,” authorities said.
Back when Emmanuel was originally reported missing, his mother told officials that “while she stood outside her vehicle, changing the child’s diaper, she was physically assaulted by an unknown male and rendered unconscious,” authorities said.
When she woke up, the child was gone, the mother said at the time, according to officials.
Once on the scene, scent-tracking dogs were deployed, but the 7-month-old “was not located,” officials said.
The sheriff’s department interviewed “multiple individuals” regarding the disappearance, including the child’s parents.
Since then, officials noted that they have conducted “extensive” searches in the areas of Yucaipa and Cabazon and have also served “several search warrants at the Haro home.” Authorities also previously said they were reviewing a “large amount of surveillance video” from the areas of interest.
In an interview with Los Angeles ABC station KABC prior to her arrest, Rebecca Haro described her son as a “happy boy” and begged whoever has her son to “give him back to me.”
“Please don’t hurt my son,” she told KABC on Aug. 16.
The father, Jake Haro, previously pleaded guilty to willful cruelty to a child following a 2018 arrest, KABC reported.
“Whoever took our son, please bring him back,” Jake Haro told KABC on Aug. 16.
Rebecca Haro is currently held at the Robert Presley Detention Center, while Jake Haro is being held at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility, according to jail records.
(NEW YORK) — Cooler-than-normal seasonal temperatures sweeping across much of the nation this week are expected to extend through the Labor Day weekend.
Seasonal or below-average high temperatures will persist for millions of people in the Midwest, South and East. Nearly everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains could see high temperatures 5 to 15 degrees below normal for the first week of September.
Highs are expected to only climb to the 80s from Dallas to Atlanta and Jacksonville, Florida.
In the Northeast, New York City and Boston are forecast to see highs in the 70s over the holiday weekend. Similar cool temperatures are in store for the Midwest, including the cities of Chicago, Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota.
In the West, seasonal or warmer-than-normal temperatures are expected to continue. High temperatures are expected to top triple digits from Phoenix, Arizona, to Las Vegas. Salt Lake City, Utah, Boise, Idaho, and most of Montana are expected to see temperatures in the 90s over the Labor Day weekend.
The hot weather in the West will follow monsoon conditions that have brought the wettest days of the year, so far, to some areas across the region and supplied much-needed rain to drought-stricken areas.
On Wednesday, an increased threat of flooding will mostly be in Idaho. A flood watch is also in effect on Wednesday for parts of California, Utah, Oregon and Montana.
On Wednesday night, there is a threat for heavy rain from Colorado through much of Kansas and into southwestern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas.
Holiday weekend temperatures in Florida are expected to remain mostly seasonal, with highs in the 80s and 90s. But rain is also expected in the Sunshine State over the weekend.
A storm front sitting over the state is forecast to remain stationary, bringing rounds of showers and thunderstorms across the region throughout the weekend. Between 2 inches to 5 inches of rain is expected across Florida this weekend.
Other areas that could see rain over the holiday weekend include New Mexico and West Texas.
Passing showers are also across the Gulf Coast on Saturday and Sunday, but drier conditions are expected on Monday.
Holiday beachgoers along the Atlantic Coast will also encounter cooler-than-average temperatures as the unofficial end to summer bows out with a cool note.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — An 8-year-old and 10-year-old were shot and killed when a gunman fired shots through the windows of a church at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, police said.
Seventeen others, including 14 children, were injured during the shooting during a Mass that marked the first week of school, police said. Two children are in critical condition, police said.
The gunman died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.
The mass shooting unfolded just before 8:30 a.m. when the gunman approached the side of the building and fired a rifle through the church windows toward the children and other worshippers sitting in the pews, O’Hara said.
Dozens of rounds were fired, the chief said, and he called it a “deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping.”
The gunman — described as in his early 20s — was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, and police believe he fired from all three weapons, the chief said.
“We are looking through information left behind to try and determine some type of motive,” the chief said.
“These kids were literally praying,” an emotional Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference. “It was the first week of school. They were in a church. These are kids that should be learning with their friends, they should be playing on the playground. They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence, and their parents should have the same kind of assurance.”
“This kind of act of evil should never happen, and it happens far too often,” he said.
Students in pre-K to eighth grade attend the school. Young children wearing their uniforms were seen leaving the school holding their parents’ hands.
“I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wrote on social media.
Brian Leege, who lives two blocks from the school, told ABC News he was having breakfast with his daughter when he heard dozens of gunshots over two to three minutes.
“My husband’s a firefighter, and he got a phone call this morning [that] said that there was a incident at Annunciation, and that’s where my niece and nephew go to school … so he just took off on foot,” Emily Feste told Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP. “We heard about 15 minutes ago that they’re safe. But it’s so awful and it’s so scary.”
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that he’s been “fully briefed on the tragic shooting.”
“The White House will continue to monitor this terrible situation. Please join me in praying for everyone involved!” he wrote.
Trump called Walz after the shooting to offer his condolences, a source told ABC News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Jack Date, Luke Barr, Aaron Katersky, Sasha Pezenik and Michael Pappano contributed to this report.
