Vice President JD Vance meets with victims of Minneapolis church shooting

“I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did,” said U.S. Vice President JD Vance following his visit with parents and victims of the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vances are shown here outside the church during their Sept. 3, 2025 visit. / Credit: Alex Wroblewski-Pool/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 3, 2025 / 18:39 pm (CNA).

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance visited Minneapolis, Minnesota on Wednesday to meet with victims and families of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting that occurred last week. 

The Vances visited the church sanctuary, which is the site of the shooting that claimed the lives of two children and left more than 20 wounded. The pair stopped outside the church to observe the memorial and leave bouquets of flowers.

A spokesperson for the vice president said Vance held a private meeting with the parents of the two children who were killed, Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel. Mike and Jackie Moyski and Jesse and Mollie Merkel met with Vance, Father Denis Zehren of Annunciation Catholic Church, and Matt DeBoer, the principal of Annunciation Catholic School. 

The Vances also traveled to Children’s Minnesota Hospital to visit with some of the victims who are still in recovery, including Lydia Kaiser. Vance later spoke on the phone with Weston Halsne, another victim recovering from surgery who was not yet well enough to be visited in person when Vance was there. 

‘I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did’

“We should talk more about these kids. We should talk less about the shooter,” Vance said to reporters at the airport following the visit. “I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did.” 

When asked about Gov. Walz’s call for a special legislative session to consider new gun laws, the Vice President said: “I’m not going to tell the Minnesota lawmakers or the governor exactly how they should respond to this tragedy. I think that…there’s a strong desire from across the political spectrum to do something so that these shootings are less common.”

“I think that it’s important that they actually take steps that are favorable, that are going to work. But besides that, I’m not an expert in Minnesota law,” Vance said. “I would just say, ‘take the concerns of these parents seriously.’ I think all of us, Democrat, Republican and independent, want these school shootings to happen less frequently. Hopefully there’s some steps that we can take to make that happen.”