Annunciation principal’s letter to JD Vance describes shooting

Matthew DeBoer, the principal at Annunciation Catholic School, met with Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, during their visit to Minneapolis to pay respects to victims of last week’s mass shooting. He gave the Vances a letter that described his experience inside the room during the attack that killed two children and injured 21 other people, and asked them to take action.

DeBoer also shared the letter with Annunciation School families. The Minnesota Star Tribune obtained a copy. Attempts to reach DeBoer for further comment through the school and archdiocese were unsuccessful.

DeBoer began the letter by explaining that he was about to stand and sing “Alleluia” with Annunciation’s schoolchildren and a few adult parishioners when he heard a pop. At first he thought it was a firecracker outside the church.

Quickly realizing the sanctuary was under attack, DeBoer recalled how he repeatedly screamed for everyone to get down and stay down and sprinted toward the source of the gunfire. He stopped on his way to the door, recognizing he could make the situation worse if he unintentionally let the shooter inside.

DeBoer’s three children were in the building. The older two were with him in the sanctuary, and his youngest was one floor below with her fellow preschoolers. He recounted his 8-year-old daughter’s question to the buddy beside her as they huddled under the pews for more than two minutes of gunfire: “Are we at war?”

Then DeBoer answered the question himself:

The Vice President’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

After first responders tended to Fletcher and Harper, DeBoer shifted to caring for Sophia Forchas, who had been severely injured. The minutes before she received medical attention felt like days, he noted, calling those who took over “heroes.”

DeBoer then wrote of his plans to take action as a result of what he witnessed and lived through, and that he has no intention of waiting for elected officials. “I will take this action with Fletcher and Harper forever tattooed on my heart.”

DeBoer implored the Vances that if they mean what they say, and truly want to listen, that they should join him and the Annunciation community at their lowest place:

DeBoer quoted Scripture in describing his feelings toward the shooter — “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do” — and called for change. “May our right to live matter more than someone’s right to access a tool for death.”

He closed with a plea that differences be put aside to create a better future together, with love at the center.