Stephen Maturen / Getty Images

When gunfire shattered a routine Mass marking the first week of class at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, middle school students were among those who acted heroically, according to an emergency official, a principal and a parent whose children attend the school.

As a lone shooter carried out a mass shooting that killed two children and injured 15 other children and three adults, children were protecting other children.

"We had one kid that covered up another kid and took a shotgun blast to his back," Marty Scheerer, chief of Hennepin Emergency Medical Services, said on Thursday.

The students had been among the pews at Annunciation Church on Wednesday when gunfire erupted and plunged the Mass into chaos and bloodshed.

Annunciation Cathol

See Full Page