12-year-old girl shot at Annunciation Church
Sophia Forchas, a 12-year-old child, was injured in the shooting at Annunciation, according to a GoFundMe page and a post by St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church.
She was critically injured and underwent surgery, the church said. She remains in critical condition in the ICU, the GoFundMe page notes.
Sophia’s younger brother was also inside the school during the shooting but wasn’t physically injured, the GoFundMe page said.
Meanwhile, the GoFundMe page says Sophia’s mother is a pediatric critical care nurse who went to work to help before discovering the shooting happened at her children’s school and that her daughter was among the injured.
The GoFundMe page has raised more than $218,000 as of Thursday morning.
Those funds will be used to help with medical costs, trauma counseling, and “the countless unknowns that lie ahead”, the GoFundMe states.
Annunciation Church and School shooting
The backstory:
Shortly before 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 27, several law enforcement agencies responded to a report of a shooting at the Annunciation Church and Catholic School in south Minneapolis.
A gunman dressed in black approached the outside of the church and opened fire through the stained-glass windows towards children sitting in the pews during their first week back at school.
The shooter was armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, and is believed to have fired dozens of rounds from all three weapons, according to Minneapolis Police Department Chief Brian O’Hara.
First responders arrived at the scene and rescued children hiding throughout the church. There were 20 victims as a result of the shooting. Two children, 8 and 10, were fatally shot. Another 15 children, between the ages of 6 and 15, were injured by gunfire. Three adults in their 80s who were attending mass were also shot.
Previously, authorities said 14 children were injured in the shooting, but officials revised that number to 15 on Thursday morning.
