MINNEAPOLIS — Doctors discovered a bullet fragment in the neck of a 10-year-old boy who went viral for recounting how his friend jumped on top of him to shield him during a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church that killed two children and injured others.
Weston Halsne, a fifth-grade student at Annunciation Catholic School, was attending Mass on Wednesday when the shooting occurred. He recounted running under a pew and covering his head while shots came through the stained-glass windows, and said his friend Victor was shot while shielding him.
“I think I got, like, gunpowder on my neck,” he said after the shooting.
But doctors later discovered it was not just gunpowder that hit the 10-year-old’s neck, but a bullet fragment as well.
Weston’s father, Grant Halsne, told NBC News that the fragment came close to — but didn’t hit — the boy’s carotid artery, which a doctor described as a “miracle.”
“If it [the bullet fragment] went any further, he would’ve died,” Grant Halsne said.
The Halsne family is waiting to confirm when the surgery to remove the fragment will be scheduled, but hopes it will be sometime early this week. The fragment is in a very sensitive area, but the surgery is low risk and Weston is expected to make a full recovery, his father said.
Grant Halsne said the shooting has left his son scared and not wanting to be alone.
“He’s scared of loud noises,” the father said.
On Wednesday, just before 8:30 a.m., a 23-year-old shooter fired a rifle through the side windows of Annunciation Catholic School’s church, aiming at children sitting in the pews, authorities said.
Weston remembered thinking, “What is that?” when he heard the first gunshot. When he heard it again, he ran under the pew.
The student had practiced what to do during an active shooter situation, but never at the church, he said.
“I was like two seats away from the stained glass windows,” Weston said. “So, they were like, the shots were like right next to me.”
Grant Halsne said he still hasn't processed that his son was shot during Mass.
"To me, it still doesn't register," he said. "It doesn't feel real."
On Sunday, Minneapolis police revised the number of people injured in the shooting from 18 to 21, adding three injured children to the count. It was not immediately clear whether Weston was included in that new total.
The suspect was found dead at the rear of the church with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to search warrants. She was found dressed in black “tactical” gear and officials found approximately 120 shell casings from three different guns that she used, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
Sumiko Moots reported from Minneapolis and Mirna Alsharif from New York City.
