Minneapolis police officers on responding to Annunciation shooting, one year later

NINA MOINI: We're continuing today to mark one year since two children were killed and several people were injured in a shooting at Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis. When the call first came in of a shooting at Annunciation that morning, many of the Minneapolis police officers who ended up on the scene didn't know if it was real, but as more calls and details kept coming in, the reality of the situation quickly set in.

Inspector Ryan Kelly got to the church within 3.5 minutes, according to a new report released by the city this week. Dozens of other officers and first responders soon arrived. This included officers Valeria Perez Martinez and Liban Ibrahim. We'll now hear from these three officers in interviews conducted and shared by the Minneapolis Police Department. We'll start with Inspector Kelly on how this tragedy still stays with him one year on.

RYAN KELLY: It still even-- almost a year later, it's still fuzzy, and a lot of my timelines get really messed up.

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I do the best I can to try to remember, but like most people when they go through stuff like that, it's not something you want to sit and think about. Just like every other responder that day, I'm sure it's something that people call it a once in a lifetime call that you're-- that you go to.

And you always wonder did I do the right thing. Did I feel a pulse on this person? Did I not-- did I render the proper aid. Did I triage these people appropriately? For some reason, those ones always stick with me, wondering if I did the right thing when it comes to life or death situations.

I regularly still see a lot of parents and kids from the church, and I can't even count how many letters, cards, and everything else that we get from the kids. They all know that they were a part of something that was violent and terrible and awful, but somehow they've been able to work together, stay together, and found a way to heal I guess is the best way to put it. And I think that really does summarize what resiliency really is.

And it's a long road to recovery obviously. There's a lot of kids that, I hate to say it, but whenever I pop in there unannounced because I'm down there at least once a week or something, I'll be in the parking lot just writing reports and stuff. But they'll see a squad car or a police officer in uniform, and. some of them still can't do it.

And I'm just hoping that long term that these kids are able to recover and the adults that were affected of course. And that just comes down to the proper mental health resources and a place to heal, and I know that the school and the church and the community as a whole have done an outstanding job making sure that they have those resources.

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VALERIA PEREZ MARTINEZ: After the incident, took my days off. And then a couple days later, I had to go back there because I didn't even think about where I had to go. I was like, yeah, I'll do it. I'm always there for my coworkers, then when I noticed, I'm like, oh, dang, he's at the Annunciation. It was hard to get there.

I remember that place being chaotic and just felt like a dark cloud. That's how it felt afterwards. But when I got there, I got to see a mass amount of people outside praying, all the gifts given to the kids, the flowers. It felt not a dark place anymore.

After all that incident, I couldn't cry. I just couldn't. I tried because I'm like I need to get this out of my system, and I couldn't. And then that day I told my friend I'm just going to go walk there, and I don't know. I don't-- just give me a minute.

And then I got around and start seeing the names, the pictures of the kids, what people have written for the kids. And I cried and make me feel better. And at that point, I realized how much people were-- all the support that the community had given to this school, to the victims, to the survivors, to the parents of the victims, and then how grateful they were for us being there, MPD itself.

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LIBAN IBRAHIM: You train for these type of things, but when reality comes, it's a different story. It's-- you've seen all those kids and all that and is that one person goes in there and more people or officers arrive going in there. At the same time, we understand the goal is to stop the threat but at the same time to take care of those kids as well and to go back. Everybody that was out there showed a lot of resilience. All those people had some part to do with how this turned out.

This type of incident will live with us for the longest, but I think I believe that how we move forward with all this would be as a community including our law enforcement in the community, and the parents and the staff and all that sticking together, and sharing those memories together, good or bad, to keep it going for those kids because those kids grow up and all of that.

We're still going to hold it in their thoughts and as they grow up and all of that, but this is the reason why we put this uniform on is because of-- to making sure that we take care of those communities that are going through the hard time even in years come from now. We'll always be sharing those memories together and sticking around.

NINA MOINI: That was inspector Ryan Kelly and officers Valeria Perez Martinez and Liban Ibrahim in interviews conducted by Minneapolis police.

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