One was an 8-year-old boy who loved “his family, friends, fishing, cooking and any sport that he was allowed to play.” The other, a 10-year-old girl “whose laughter, kindness and spirit touched everyone who knew her.”
The identities of the two children slain in a shooting at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis were released Thursday by their families.
Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, died while practicing their faith, attending the first all-school Mass of the year.
Jesse Merkel, Fletcher’s father, read a statement outside the church Thursday afternoon. Harper’s parents, Michael Moyski and Jackie Flavin, released a statement shortly afterward.
“Yesterday, a coward decided to take our 8-year-old son, Fletcher, away from us. Because of their actions, we will never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play with him and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming,” Jesse Merkel said tearfully, with Annunciation Principal Matt DeBoer’s hand resting on his shoulder.
Jesse and Mollie Merkel, parents of Fletcher Merkel, who was shot and killed in Wednesday’s Mass shooting, are embraced by community members on Thursday at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis after holding a news conference. (Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“While the hole in our hearts and lives will never be filled, I hope that in time, our family can find healing,” Merkel said.
“I pray that the other victim’s family can find some semblance of the same.”
Eighteen others were wounded in the attack, most of them children, some critically. All are expected to survive, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said Wednesday.