Thursday will mark one year since the shooting at Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis when a shooter opened fire during a back-to-school Mass. One hundred and sixteen bullets shattered windows of the building in less than two minutes. Two children, 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski, were killed. Twenty-eight other people were injured. On Monday, MPR News host Angela Davis talked with two parents of children who attend the school about how they plan to remember Aug. 27, 2025. “It's feeling really heavy,” said Brittany Haeg, whose first-grade son was shot last August and spent several days in intensive care. “We have three kids, and they're all very different ages and stages, and they feel very different about how they want to spend the day. And so, I think our day is about contingencies and contingencies for our contingencies. So we have a loose plan and a lot of adults, and we have staffed our house with friendly faces who are going to hang out there, so that we can sort of touch in and touch out throughout the day.” Haeg co-chairs the Annunciation Light Alliance, a nonprofit founded by parents to build safer communities for children, with Kristen Neville, who founded the organization. Neville is in a blended family with five children who attend Annunciation Catholic School. Like Haeg, she plans to lean into how her children are feeling. She also said she hopes to spend time with other Annunciation families. “I think our hope is to be able to spend time together with other Annunciation families. It's a comfort, and I think it's also a part of the healing journey that we have. I have a really strong sense of desire to want to give back to the community on that day, which is very much associated with what Annunciation is asking, right? People come and they ask us, ‘What can we do on this day? What are you doing?’ It's a day really focused on remembrance, but it's also focused on moving your feet and on prayer. And so, I will be doing that, kind of working in the community. There's a really beautiful event that's been planned at Pearl Park by some of our representatives, and so I'll be there packing some kits for youth that experience homelessness right now.” Annunciation families push for laws to protect kids While reflecting on the last year, Haeg and Neville also talked about continuing their advocacy for changes that keep kids safe. During the legislative session earlier this year, the Annunciation Light Alliance took a nonpartisan stance and sought a layered approach to preventing gun violence with hopes of gaining support from both sides of the aisle. Parents backed a ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as more mental health support funding, funding for school safety programs and safeguards for children online. The Minnesota Senate, with its slight DFL majority, passed a comprehensive package with firearm restrictions and school safety provisions in early May. However, the state House — split 67-67 between parties — did not bring the bill to the floor for a vote. Companion bills also failed to make it out of committee. State lawmakers passed two laws the Annunciation Light Alliance says will help. One adds guardrails around social media accounts for Minnesota minors. Another requires schools to set up anonymous threat reporting systems, which allow people to report tips about potential threats and help with intervention. “I think the legislative session was disappointing for some people in terms of what got passed and that the gun violence — some of those efforts didn't get passed,” said Jillian Peterson, executive director of the Violence Prevention Project Research Center at Hamline University. Peterson said it has been “inspiring” to be part of the Governor's Statewide Safety Council, which Gov. Tim Walz established in December after the shooting to examine and reduce gun violence. Haeg and Neville are also on the council. “It's commissioners from all different state agencies, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the sheriffs, the chief of police, and it's getting all these people from different perspectives into a room once a month for like a three or four hour conversation about how complicated this is, about the root causes, about mental health and gun access and radicalization and social media, with the goal of putting together a really comprehensive package of recommendations for the legislature,” Peterson said. Peterson is hopeful that the connections forged on the council will encourage change. How to honor and help Peterson, who has studied mass shootings for years, said what stands out to her about Annunciation is that people are not focusing on the shooter. Instead, they’re focusing on finding solutions to help children. “I think to take a tragedy like this and spin it into something incredibly positive about protecting children and about, ‘How do we do a better job of this? How do we hold each other up? How do we take care of each other?’ To me, that's a remarkable conversation to come out of something this horrific.” As we approach Aug. 27, 2026, Haeg and Neville said they are often asked what people can do to help. “Sometimes I say just spending time with your own children and being able to be present and a part of their life, so that you can be able to help them continue to grow,” Neville said. “And nurture their environment that they're in when they go to school and are good stewards of the community and really express and represent those values that then can be presented and lived. That I think is something that is really helpful. I also think there is the element of just being engaged within your community on a broader basis, finding opportunities to take action if it's something that you feel called to.” Haeg added, “Have these conversations in your communities before tragedy strikes. Have it before your Aug. 27.” Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
