WATCH: Minneapolis officers reflect on Annunciation tragedy

Minnesota is meeting the tragic milestone with different remembrances and celebrations of resilience.

Among those looking back, are the first responders who were first on the scene from the Minneapolis Police Department, a very rare occurrence for these law enforcement officers to share such intimate detail on any case, let alone this tragedy.

Several Minneapolis Police Officers and Inspectors sat down to share their firsthand account of that morning, August 27, 2025, and some of the miracles they stumbled upon while helping the injured, as well as the fear they faced entering a situation with no clear answers as to what had happened.

Six of them came forward, sharing intimate and emotional details about how the tragedy unfolded including MPD Officer Drea Mays. She recalled the morning, and hearing the call about the shooting. She raced to the scene.

"I left my squad where it was and I just took off running," Mays says in interviews conducted internally by the MPD. "I took off running to the front of the church, and when I got there, and I'm sorry, I might get emotional. When I got there, I saw it was children coming out of the church. These children were injured."

10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel were killed in the mass shooting into a Wednesday morning mass. Several others were injured, all of them miraculously surviving the incident.

Minneapolis Police were first to arrive on the scene. Several recalled what they referred to as small miracles they found in the chaos.

"When we walked in, it smelled like a firing range," MPD Inspector Jose Gomez said about the church. "It was a little like hazy and you could smell the gunpowder."

Gomez also shared a story of attending to a young girl who was bleeding from her head after being hit by shrapnel. His story is familiar to others shared that morning.

"I held her hand until she got on the ambulance, and then, I don't know who went with her," Gomez adds.

MPD Inspector Ryan Kelly was among the first on the scene, and talked about walking into the church without knowing what was happening, and reports of an active shooter.

"I had no idea where the next squad car was or how far away anybody was, but they just opened the door. When I came through the door, there was one of the dads was there and I guess he basically was standing there ready to take down the shooter," Kelly says. "And, I just remember kind of moving past him because I think once I opened the door, he realized that I was a police officer, but he wasn't expecting the police to be there."

Kelly adds the scene became surreal once those in the church realized the police were on the scene.

"At that point, there were people laying everywhere blocking doors, but no one was injured that I could see," Kelly explains. "And then I remember somebody was yelling that it's the police, and all I saw were dozens and dozens and dozens of little heads starting to poke up from the from the pews. I just remember it's just like a rush coming over me, like oh my gosh."

Officer Mays says she felt overwhelmed at first, arriving on the scene.

"Some of these kids were just full of blood," she recalls. "You didn't even know, was this blood from another child or is this your own blood? Are you wounded?"

Kelly says when police began to clear the church, the children gathered together, and despite the horror and chaos around them, did it in an orderly fashion.

"They all kind of formed a line. They weren't like pushing each other, they weren't doing anything," says Kelly. "I mean, they were scared, of course. But, these kids, they were just magical. They formed this line and they came out and basically one-by-one I was just doing a quick check. 'Are you injured are you not injured,' kind of thing."

Mays also believes there was divine intervention, adding that even with the loss of life, something kept more children from also being killed.

"For me, it's like, OK, they're in the house of the Lord, a place where you're supposed to feel safe," she explains. "So that in itself is very hurtful and tragic."

She also is grateful that they saved lives that day.

"And I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful the guy never made it in inside the church And I'm thankful that we made it as fast as we did, and as quickly as we did," Mays adds.

You can click this link to access more videos courtesy of the Minneapolis Police Department.