The mother of Sophia Forchas, one of the 15 children injured in Wednesday’s deadly shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school, is a nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit who was working at the hospital the morning when her daughter and others began arriving for emergency treatment.
“Her mother, a Pediatric Critical Care nurse, arrived at work to help during the tragedy, before knowing it was her children’s school that was attacked, and that her daughter was critically injured,” according to a GoFundMe page that lists Forchas’s father Thomas as an organizer.
“Sophia was shot during the attack and is currently in critical condition in the ICU,” the page adds. “She has already undergone emergency surgery, and her medical team is doing everything they can to stabilize her. Her road ahead will be long, uncertain, and incredibly difficult — but she is strong, and she is not alone.”
The Independent has contacted the family for comment.
The hospital, Hennepin County Medical Center, told People magazine that Forchas’s mother is an employee in the pediatric ICU where the 12-year-old is in critical condition along with other shooting victims.
“I have spent a good portion of the day with Sophia’s family at Hennepin County Medical Center where Sophia went into surgery immediately as she was one of the shooting victims who had been critically injured,” Father Timothy Sas of St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in Minneapolis wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. “We prayed and comforted each other throughout the day.”
Sas described Forchas as a 7th grader who is “immersed in the life of the Church together with her extended family of several generations who are devoted members of our congregation.”
During the early-morning shooting, which took place as students of Annunciation Catholic School and local parishioners were in the middle of the first Mass of the school year, two children were shot and killed, while 18 others were injured overall.
Sophia Forchas’s younger brother was inside the school during the shooting but was physically unharmed.
“The trauma of witnessing such a terrifying event — and knowing his sister was critically injured — is something no child should ever experience,” the GoFundMe page reads.
Suspect Robin Westman, formerly known as Robert, died of a self-inflicted gunshot as law enforcement arrived at the scene of the shooting. Westman’s mother previously donated to the school and worked as a secretary at Annunciation church before retiring in 2021.
Authorities are still working to determine potential motives for the shooting.
On Thursday the two children to be killed in the horrific attack were identified by their parents.
The first, eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel, was named by his father. In an emotional statement given to press, Jesse Merkel said his son loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking, and “any sports he was allowed to play.”
