10:51 a.m. – Andy Winchell was preparing to take his wife to work at around 8:20 a.m. when he and neighbors heard rapid volleys of gunfire that he says “went on for a minute, plus.”
”It was very loud, like a ‘bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop,’” Winchell, 42, said. “We were like, ‘what was that?’ There was a long pause, and then all of a sudden you hear sirens from everywhere.”
10:50 a.m. – Annunciation Church, on the south side of Minneapolis, held its first Mass in 1922. The following year, four Dominican Sisters opened the red-brick school to 72 students, according to the church’s website. Church services were held in the school auditorium for decades until the current church was built in 1962. Enrollment peaked at 1,100 students in the mid ‘60s. Last school year, it served about 340 students.
The school, which enrolls students from preschool to eighth grade, touts its commitment to academics, service and Catholic values. Monday marked the first day of classes, and a Facebook post featuring back-to-school photos of the students featured the hashtag #AFutureFilledwithHope.