Mother speaks after shooting Annunciation Catholic Church

MINNEAPOLIS — “We all have a story, and this is mine.” 

Vivian St. Clair was one of the students wounded during the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. On Thursday, her mom, Malia Kimbrell, spoke to the media to call for change. 

Kimbrell said her daughter, a third grader, just turned 9 years old. On Aug. 27, a shooter went to the church where students were attending back-to-school Mass. More than a dozen were injured and two children died. According to Kimbrell, her daughter was shot twice in the back and once in the arm. Her friend told her she had a hole in her back. 

Vivian was in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at HCMC and was recently able to go home. 

“I got to take her home,” Kimbrell said. “I got to take my child home after this horrific massacre. But the Moyskis didn’t and the Merkels didn’t. We all dropped our kids off that morning, but we didn’t all get to take our kids home. And that level of heartbreak is unfathomable.” 

Kimbrell said, “Without action, we will be here again mourning the loss of innocent lives.” She called for everyone to be part of the change and take action to prevent another shooting. 

“Because we all know that thoughts didn’t stop the bullets. Prayers didn’t stop the bullets. Action is our only hope,” she said. 

She went on to say there should be more funding for mental health support, as well as a ban on semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. She added that any lawmaker who stands in the way of that happening will be invited to her home to hold Vivian’s hand while they change her dressings and clean her bullet wounds. 

“Now more than ever, we need a future filled with hope,” Kimbrell ended. You can watch her statement in full in the video above. 

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