The demonstrators Heckle JD Vance when he pays tribute to the victims of the Catholic School shooting

While vice-president JD Vance paid tribute to the victims of the deadly mass shooting last week at the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, demonstrators standing near a “Progress Pride” flag with the transgender colors heckled him on the other side of the street.

Wednesday, Vance, who is Catholic, visited the site of the shooting and visited the victims and their families.

The vice-president and the second Lady Usha Vance were seen stop for a moment in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary outside the church before her entry. Upon entering, demonstrators could be heard shouting various slogans, including “Protect Our Kids”, “You are a coward” and “Do Bet Better”.

Behind the demonstrators were signs reading “protecting children and not rifles” alongside a flag of pride.

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The demonstrators border the street to express their opposition to armed violence while the vice-president JD Vance leaves Minneapolis, Wednesday September 3, 2025. (Kerem Yücel / Minnesota Public radio via AP)

Commenting on the demonstrators, the conservative columnist Dustin Grage Posted on X“The left demonstrators proceed to shout” you are a coward “and” do better “while piloting a rainbow flag. Talk about deaf.”

Police identified Robin Westman, 23, as the shooter who opened fire during a school mass last Wednesday, killing two children and injuring 21 others.

The killer carried three firearms, according to the authorities – a rifle, a pistol and a hunting rifle. All three had been bought legally.

The judicial files show that a minor of Minneapolis named Robert Westman had a change of legal name for Robin in 2019, and the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, confirmed that the shooter was born Robert and then identified as Robin.

Mass filming cost the life of Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10.

The director of the FBI calls on the minneapolis school to shoot “barbaric” domestic terrorism with anti-religious reasons

A series of protest panels reading “Protect Kids Not Guns” and “Hate Won’t Making America Great” are displayed in a courtyard in Minneapolis on Wednesday September 3, 2025. (Kerem Yücel / Minnesota Public radio via AP)

Addressing journalists before boarding Air Force Two after the visit, Vance commented: “I have never had a day that will stay with me like that day.”

He described it as a “very heartbreaking visit, but also very rewarding”.

“I really felt like these parents, in the middle of the worst sorrow in their lives, they opened their lives and they opened their hearts and they were part of me,” he said. “They told me about their children. They told me about their families. They told me about the community that supported them. And that was just an incredible thing to see, an incredible thing to assist, an incredible thing. To be part of being part.”

Vance said that he had been moved by the stories of the parents of the victims on their deceased children.

A parent embraces his son in a situation of active shooter at the Annunciation church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Wednesday August 27, 2025. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii / Star Tribune via AP)

“We should talk more about these children. We should talk less about the shooter. We should speak less about the crazy person who took these children to us. We should talk about these children, their hopes and their dreams and the fact that they had a fully life in front of them who was interrupted,” he said.

“I want us to speak much more of Harper, who was a beautiful young girl. She had a beautiful smile, the kind of smile that would transform a bad day into good and was very proud of the fact that she had just had her first communion a few years ago … I also wish to speak a little more fletcher. Fletcher was a very rambunated hair chief.”

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Erick Vandergon writes a note during a memorial at the Annunciation Catholic Church after Wednesday’s school shooting on Thursday, August 28, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP / Abbie byr)

Vance also urged prayer continues for the victims of the shooting that still suffers from their injuries.

“While two children have lost their lives, there is always a child who is in a very serious state, and each family, the family of Lydia, who fortunately recovered, but we visited him in the hospital, the family of the two who died, Harper and Fletcher, these three families said:” Please say a prayer “,” he said. “So now, my American compatriots, if you are the type of prayer, say a prayer for this innocent girl who is really in surgery at the moment that swelling will decrease, that she will go well because she is still fighting for her life.”

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When asked if the authorities should investigate people who suffer from gender dysphoria and who show signs that they could target children, Vance replied: “We should certainly investigate people who plan to target children.”

He said that policies concerning politicians to prevent future attacks, all the parents of the victims had asked “that we are very seriously looking at the deep causes, that we are very seriously looking for the means to prevent the crazy people who are about to shoot a school from accessing firearms”.

Vance added that “one of the ways I am going to try to honor these parents and the children they have lost is to be a better father and tighten my children tight this evening and to make sure they know that their father loves them. Because there are two families who will no longer get this opportunity.”