HCMC ER director recalls all-hands-on-deck response after Annunciation mass shooting

Less than 15 minutes: That's how much time the staff at HCMC in Minneapolis had to prepare for the task of a lifetime. There was a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church.

As the scene and shock at Annunciation set in, first responders rolled in as the second responders set up the stabilization room in Hennepin Healthcare's emergency department. They'd already sent two doctors to the scene.

"We didn't know a lot of the details at the time; we just were told again by our pre-hospital colleagues and our EMS physicians that were in the field what to expect, what to prepare for," Dr. Thomas E. Wyatt, chair of emergency medicine at HCMC, said. "And they said multiple victims that had penetrating trauma from gunshot wounds were being triaged at the scene and they were prepared to deliver them to our department."

Wyatt oversees the emergency department and by every account, this was an emergency; he got tapped to brief the masses. 

Speaking outside of the hospital the day the Annunciation shooting happened in 2025, he said, "I am here to provide you with an update to this tragic event that occurred this morning.  We first received a page that we were going to have a mass casualty event at 8:46 a.m. That gave us time to mobilize our resources and prepare our teams. We received a total 11 victims; two were adult, nine pediatric."

"I didn't have a lot of time to prepare," Wyatt said. "I was told that there was a news conference and I was the one who was being designated to go out and give an update. So I tried to be as factual as possible and to also reassure people that this is what we do and that we are very good at the work that we do at Hennepin, and it's from years of training and our experience."

He says the teamwork was fluid.

"I was just very proud of the fact that we were able to mobilize our resources so quickly and stabilize so many patients that came to us and get them to the right place they needed to be, whether that be surgery or in the ICUs," Wyatt said. "The plan actually worked. It worked well. And so there's a sense of pride that comes with that as well. I'm very proud of the way that we were able to be present for our community."

He's proud that all 11 patients, even the most wounded of all, Sophia Forchas, made it home. 

"I think it is a sense of, obviously, just a sense of joy for the family and for Sophia. But again, also a sense of pride, like, this happened and against all odds, you know, an innocent victim who was very, very critically ill basically walked out of the hospital," Wyatt said. "Yeah, I think that miracle, but also skill and care. I think all those three things can exist at the same time."

All in all, for his staff, Wyatt says, it's been a tough year.

"I think that when you train for something and you deal with these very serious events and these very serious conditions day after day, there's a phrase: pressure is a privilege. It is a privilege for us to take care of patients on the worst day of their life, and certainly this was the worst day for many of those patients," Wyatt said. "I remember when I got home, my family was there. They were all there waiting for me, so that was really nice to be with them. There were a lot of hugs, yeah."

Because on Aug. 27, 2025, the trauma was shared.

In October, the responders from that day, from HCMC, to paramedics, fire, all got together at U.S. Bank Stadium and talked about what happened that day. It was a day to talk about what they saw, felt, learned and want to improve. It was something that had never been done before.

Hennepin Healthcare will have mental health support at the hospital this week to help the helpers.