September 13, 2025

Minneapolis Chief Brian O’Hara on the recent school shooting and managing a traumatized agency

PERF members,

On August 27, a shooter fired more than 100 rounds through the window of a church in southern Minneapolis where students from the Annunciation Catholic School were celebrating Mass. Two children were killed, and 14 kids and three adults were wounded. The shooter died by suicide, and Minneapolis police responded in minutes.

This week I spoke with Minneapolis Chief Brian O’Hara about his agency’s response to this shooting and his tenure leading the Minneapolis Police Department, where he has served as chief for nearly three years.

Chuck Wexler: What were you doing when you first heard about the shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School?

Chief Brian O’Hara: I was at home and on the phone with the mayor, because we had had a mass shooting outside a Catholic high school the day before and two additional murders overnight. So we were talking about the spate of violence on the south side of the city, which is where Annunciation is, and our plans going forward. Then the call came in that this was a confirmed active shooter.

Wexler: How long did it take your officers to get to the scene?

Chief O’Hara: The first officer was on scene less than four minutes after the initial 911 call for shots fired. That was Lieutenant Ryan Kelly, who I had just promoted and assigned specifically to that shift in that precinct because of his record. I watched his body-worn camera video and his leadership, and what he did is absolutely remarkable. He was a combat medic in the Army and works as a paramedic part time outside of the police department, so it’s by the grace of God that he was the person who responded.

A parishioner who was hiding in the back of the church with some of the kids told me that the first sense of safety they felt was when what they called a “regular cop”—Lieutenant Kelly, who wasn’t wearing a helmet and didn’t have a shield, a rifle, or any SWAT gear—came in and said, “Where’s the shooter?” The parishioner said he pointed in the direction where the shooter was, and the cop ran in that direction. The parishioner said that was the first time they felt like they might have a chance of surviving.

Then the other officers responded and helped the injured, searched the scene, and rescued people. There was a day care in the basement of the church with 30 children. Officers went down there to get them out.

What’s most remarkable about this is that from the time when the first officer arrived on scene to the time the last victim was treated and placed in an ambulance was 14 minutes. I’ve been to plenty of shootings in my career—even those with one victim—where the response isn’t that quick. It’s remarkable that the officers were able to triage those kids in a way that allowed the most seriously injured to be quickly evacuated. Not enough can be said about the response of the police officers that morning.

Chief Brian O’Hara provides updates during a press conference on the morning of the shooting. Source: City of Minneapolis/YouTube

Wexler: You quickly held a press briefing where you shared a lot of information. How do you prepare for a press briefing like that?

Chief O’Hara: I try to make it a point to respond to the homicides in the city and other high-profile incidents. They expect you to do media briefings here, and I’ve tried to do that at the scenes of other homicides and shootings.

I was at the scene about 20 minutes after the first responding officer, and I had walked the scene in the church myself, so I understood what happened. So most of the details I shared came from first-hand knowledge.

For other chiefs who have to deal with situations like this, I’d say it’s one thing to get information second- and third-hand; it’s another to physically be there yourself to see what’s going on and have that understanding.

Wexler: You mentioned there had been other shootings the day before. Has gun violence been rising in Minneapolis?

Chief O’Hara: This was the worst day since I’ve been here. There have been mass shootings before, but nothing this horrific, deliberately targeting innocent children.

For the most part, the summer had been better than the last couple years in terms of community violence. The north side of the city, which has historically had the majority of shootings, has had a better year than any since at least 2008, when the city began tracking shooting victims. Even with all these mass shootings and violence in the last two weeks, we are still below the total number of shooting victims and homicides year-to-date in the past few years.

Wexler: You came to Minneapolis from Newark in 2022, two years after the murder of George Floyd. What have you learned over your past three years leading the Minneapolis Police Department?

Chief O’Hara: I think coming into this I was naïve about just how difficult the role would be. This was traditionally a 900-officer department. Five hundred of the officers who were employed here at the start of 2020 have separated from the department. A couple of hundred took PTSD separations, others were regular attrition and resignations for other departments. An enormous amount of institutional knowledge and experience has left. We’ve just hit 600 sworn officers recently, so we’re no longer bleeding people. But we still have a long road ahead to rebuild.

In June 2020, violence exploded after the precinct was surrendered, and there were hundreds of fires and destruction all around the city. That June there were more people shot in one month than what had been typical for half a year in Minneapolis. And it stayed on that trajectory for some time, while cops were leaving and, obviously, it was the most hated police department on Earth.

The year before I got here, they finished with more shooting victims than the total number of sworn police officers. I don’t know if any other major city could have ever said that. There was an enormous amount of violence and gunfire—and obvious issues with police-community relations.

The internal issues were so deep, and people were so hurt here. I would go to roll calls, and street cops with 20 or 30 years on the job would start crying. When we started having conversations about what had happened here, there were people who were just really, really angry. In every roll call I went to, they’d be pissed off. “How come you still haven’t fired the command staff?” They were angry about everything that happened in 2020 and felt like the people in charge were not held accountable, while people on the bottom took the hits. Whether or not any of that is factual, that is their belief and perception.

I’ve tried to go to the scenes of homicides and major incidents to be seen briefing the media in uniform. I think the community needs to understand that the chief and the department are addressing these problems urgently. If it’s the middle of the night, I’m there. I think that sends a message both internally and to the community, and helps us try to rebuild some faith in the police department. We’re trying to give the community some sense that people are on top of things here and working urgently, and trying to get these cops to once again be proud of the organization they’re in.

Wexler: What about the community? I suspect the community is hurting in a different way.

Chief O’Hara: Oh, absolutely. I walked the neighborhood where George Floyd was killed, and I’ll never forget an elderly woman coming out, thanking me for being there, and telling me, “You’ve got to have the cops come back here.” She said, “Every day in the summer of 2020, I had to come out in the morning myself”—this woman was about 80 years old—“with a broom and a dustbin to sweep up the shell casings from the front of my house.” She said she had to do that every day through the summer because the cops wouldn’t even come there.

And, in general, residents have a very, very high level of engagement with city government. It is dramatically different from what I experienced in Newark. It’s a whole different level of activism than anything I had experienced before.

The first day I was here, I rode along with an officer in the Fourth Precinct in North Minneapolis. We stopped a car, and as soon as we got out of the car, people were stopping in their vehicles saying, “Thank you so much.” I was expecting the opposite thing to happen. But people on the street told me there had been such a withdrawal of police, and people believed that drove further violence, so they wanted the police to come back and do their jobs. It had been a “firehouse” mentality in these precincts, with cops staying in the station, not being proactive, going out only when they had to go to calls, and coming right back. And the community saw that. The support in North Minneapolis on that first traffic stop literally reminded me of being a cop on September 12, 2001, with that level of support and everybody thanking you.

Wexler: Are you optimistic for the future of the department and the community?

Chief O’Hara: There’s no question, I’m optimistic about the future for this police department. It is just going to take time. Minnesota has very strict requirements for becoming a police officer. You have to go to a two-year college program before I can send you to the academy. So it’s a long process, and it’s certainly still the most scrutinized police department in America. It’s difficult getting people to come in the door, but we’re getting more and more people. I hope by this time next year, we’ll be up maybe 100 total sworn officers. Being 300 short, we’re trying to get back up. But it’s going to take time.

And after Annunciation, after Officer Jamal Mitchell was murdered, and after some other things that have happened, we’ve seen more and more vocal support from the community. More people around town are saying, “We appreciate the police. We see the change here. We know the department is different.” So more people from the community are supportive, and I’m absolutely optimistic for the future of the department and the city.

Wexler: What have you learned over the past few years?

Chief O’Hara: I’ve learned a lot. I think the biggest thing is that no matter the challenges, whether it’s city hall and politics or internal stuff with unions and cops, you can’t necessarily control what happens day to day as the police chief, but you can control how you react to it. So no matter how negative things are, you cannot allow those forces to get inside your head and dictate your attitude, how you think, or how you react to things. You cannot give them the power over your mind. As a chief, I think it’s important to try to step back and remember that, no matter what we’re going through.

We also need to remember that these jobs are all temporary. I think we all signed up just to be the cop in the car answering 911 calls. These roles are just a moment in time, and we have to recognize that it’s a blessing to have them and try to make the most of the situations while we have the opportunity.

Wexler: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Chief O’Hara: I am very, very proud to wear the uniform of the Minneapolis Police Department with the men and women who work here. I think the response to the Annunciation school shooting is just one example of why I have that pride.

Thanks to Chief O’Hara for taking the time to speak with me!

When I first arrived at PERF, in the ’90s, Minneapolis had a significant homicide problem; The New York Times once cited the city’s nickname as “Murderapolis.”

Bob Olson, then the police chief, and Don Davis, then the head of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, reached out to PERF for help, and we started a project there with support from the Honeywell Corporation, General Mills, and Target.

I got to know both the cops and community exceedingly well.  The two groups worked side by side, and homicides dropped significantly. That project taught me a lot about what the police and community can accomplish together.

Nearly three years into Chief O’Hara’s tenure, when the community needed his officers most, they performed with courage and selflessness.

Best,

Chuck

P.S. Please join us on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern for PERF’s webinar on reducing the risk of restraint-related deaths in policing.