The gunman who killed two children and injured 18 others at a Minneapolis church on Wednesday was fixated on murdering children, after leaving behind detailed writings and ammunition stockpiles say authorities.

Authorities recovered hundreds of pieces of evidence, including writings detailing the gunman’s plans, mental state, and expressions of hatred toward multiple groups from the 23-year-old attacker, identified as Robin Westman.

U.S. Acting Attorney General for Minnesota, Joseph Thompson said the shooter expressed hatred toward almost every group imaginable.

“There appears to be only one group that the shooter admired: the school shooters and mass murderers that are notorious in this country,” Thompson added.

He described the gunman’s motive as deeply troubling.

“More than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children, defenceless children. The shooter was obsessed with the idea of killing children,” Thompson said.

“He saw the attack as a way to target our most vulnerable among us while they were at their most vulnerable—at school and at church.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara highlighted the role of church security in preventing further casualties.

“Annunciation Church had a practice that once Mass began, they locked the doors of the Church. This incident occurred shortly after the Mass was beginning. So there's no question that the fact that doors were locked likely saved additional lives,” O’Hara said.

He described the shooter as firing from outside the church, aiming through narrow windows, and ultimately failing to enter the building.

“What's particularly heinous and cowardly about this, is these children were slaughtered by a shooter who could not see them,” O’Hara said.

Authorities said the attacker, who died by suicide at the scene, had prior ties to the parish; his mother once worked at the church, and he had attended Mass there.

Police said injuries ranged from minor to life-threatening, including one critically injured child.

O’Hara added that authorities recovered 116 rifle rounds, three shotgun shells, and a live round from a malfunctioning handgun during searches at the church and residences linked to the shooter in Minneapolis, Richfield, and Saint Louis Park.

“Literally hundreds of pieces of evidence have been recovered thus far,” he said.

An FBI agent confirmed the shooter had no prior record in the bureau’s holdings.

“We did a check of all of our holdings, and he was not in our holdings prior to this incident,” the agent said.

Officials said that the shooter shared a suicide note in a video posted to YouTube. Westman described struggles with anger and depression and a belief that death was near because of a vaping habit. 

Authorities said the investigation is ongoing and all evidence will be processed to determine the full circumstances and motive behind the attack.

Children revealed courage

A 10-year-old acted like a human shield to protect a younger schoolmate. An eighth-grader prayed while hiding under a pew. A frightened 11-year-old asked her father to lock the doors and draw the curtains when she arrived home.

These were just a handful of stories of courage and fear that have emerged a day after Wednesday's horrific shooting at a Minneapolis church during a Mass for Catholic school children.

One of the students at Annunciation Catholic Church during the deadly morning attack took a shotgun blast to his back after putting his body in the line of fire trying to protect another child, county health officials said.

"There's a lot of maybe unrecognised heroes in this event, along with the children that were protecting other children," said Martin Scheerer, a director at Hennepin Emergency Medical Services. "The teachers were getting shot at. They were protecting the kids."

Chloe Francoual, 11, was among the students who were terrified and traumatised by the flying bullets and shattered glass.

"She thought she was going to die with her friends," her father, Vincent Francoual, said in an interview.

After father and daughter were reunited in the school gym after the attack, the pair burst into tears, he said. Later, Chloe wanted all the doors in the house locked and the curtains drawn, and implored her father not to walk the dog for fear of dangers outside.

"She's just a little girl," her father said. "She's feeling all this guilt that she is OK, but her friends aren't."

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