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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Survivor of Minneapolis school shooting has shrapnel in his neck, | |
family says | |
By Andy Rose, CNN | |
Updated: | |
9:59 AM EDT, Mon September 1, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
Weston Halsne knew immediately that something had hit him during the | |
shocking mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis last week. | |
“I think I got gunpowder on my neck,” Halsne minutes after the | |
attack at Annunciation Catholic Church that and injured more than a | |
dozen other children, along with three adults. | |
Now his family says Weston’s injuries are worse than they first | |
thought. | |
“Since the interview, it has been discovered that Weston will need | |
surgery to remove a bullet fragment that is lodged in his neck, | |
dangerously close to his carotid artery,” his aunt, Allison Hawes, | |
said in a on their GoFundMe page. | |
The clear-headed account from the fifth grader of the terrifying spray | |
of bullets that sent a sanctuary full of children to the floor while | |
celebrating Mass – along with the credit he gave to a classmate for | |
saving his life – is one of the most indelible moments of the | |
tragedy. | |
“I just ran under the pew, and then I covered my head. My friend | |
Victor saved me, though, because he laid on top of me, but he got hit | |
(in the back),” Weston said. “He is really brave.” | |
His family says they have been “awed by his persistence, and charmed | |
by his earnestness.” | |
“In spite of everything, this 10-year-old boy was able to express | |
appreciation for his friends and pray for their recovery,” Hawes | |
wrote. | |
Halsne said he was only two seats from the stained-glass window that | |
was shattered by gunfire from multiple weapons, leaving more than | |
behind before the shooter took her own life. | |
He was already prepared for the idea of reacting quickly to a shooting, | |
he said, following emergency response drills at the school. | |
“We practice it like every month,” said Halsne. | |
The family did not say in its announcement about Weston’s injury when | |
the surgery to remove the shrapnel will be performed. His father it was | |
an extraordinarily close call. | |
“If it went any further, he would’ve died,” Grant Halsne said. | |
Despite Weston’s bravery in the face of deadly violence, Halsne told | |
NBC that his son is now afraid to be alone. | |
“He’s scared of loud noises,” said Weston’s father. | |
And he is not the only student scarred by the violence. | |
“You’re supposed to go to a church to feel safe,” 11-year-old | |
survivor Chloe Francoual . “I don’t feel safe anymore in that | |
church.” | |
The parish celebrated its first Mass since the shooting in an | |
auditorium Saturday evening, with Father Dennis Zehren recalling the | |
moments the shots rang out. | |
“The voices cried out, ‘Down! Down! Get low! Stay down!’” he | |
tearfully. | |
Before the service, Zehren acknowledged his own sense of helplessness | |
in the moment of the attack, unable to save the lives of 8-year-old | |
Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski. | |
“If I could have got between those bullets and the kids,” he said. | |
“That’s what I was hoping to do.” | |
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