Minneapolis mother after school shooting: ‘Evil doesn’t vanish when you remove its weapon of choice'
A Minneapolis mother whose young son survived last month’s deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church is calling for a moral and spiritual reckoning in the aftermath of the tragedy.
In a personal essay published Sept. 17 by Alpha News, Cally Proctor, a parent of a preschooler at the school, shared her response to the attack and urged the community to confront what she calls “a society unraveling spiritually.”
The shooting occurred Aug. 27 while Proctor’s 4-year-old son was attending preschool at Annunciation. A text from a friend alerted her to reports of a shooting at the school, launching what she described as the most traumatic 15 minutes of her life.
“My heart stopped,” she said. “My blood ran cold.”
Proctor recalled those moments as a blur of panic and prayer as she rushed to her car, fearing the worst.
“I finally received a call from my son’s teacher,” she wrote. “My baby was alive and unharmed. All I could do was cry into the phone.”
Although her son was not physically harmed, Proctor said that the trauma remains.
“The relief that came did not erase the truth or the terrified feeling in my body that still has not left,” she said. “My son had lived through a school shooting before he even entered kindergarten. That will forever be part of his story — and mine.”
In the essay, Proctor expressed grief not only for her own experience but also for families who suffered greater losses. At the same time, she voiced concern that city leaders were too quick to frame the tragedy through political lenses.
“[W]ithin hours, our mayor stood before cameras, not to grieve with parents or reckon with the sickness in our community, but to turn tragedy into a platform for divisive ideology,” she wrote. “While family members were still waiting for phone calls, our leaders chose tribalism and talking points.”
Though acknowledging the pain and urgency that often drive calls for gun control, Proctor urged a broader moral examination.
“Evil doesn't vanish when you remove its weapon of choice,” she said. “The truth is, we live in a society unraveling spiritually. Where godlessness is not only normal, but trending. Where truth is optional and everybody gets to have their own.”
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Proctor criticized a culture that, in her view, increasingly devalues life and prioritizes convenience over sacrifice.
“We debate whether children are worth the sacrifice of time, money, career, sex appeal, and ‘self-care,’ as if their very existence is a burden,” she wrote. “If this is how we treat life in its most innocent form, how can we possibly stand for it when confronted with despair and death?”
Proctor called on local leaders and citizens to respond not with “quick fixes or partisan soundbites,” but with truth, accountability, and a return to faith.
“We need leaders who tell the truth and name violence for what it is: evil,” she said . “And we need faith — not as a campaign line, but as a lifeline.”
Describing the shooting as a wake-up call, she concluded with a direct appeal to other parents and community members.
“This is about more than safety or policy; it is about the soul of our city, our state, our country, who we are as people, and more importantly, who we are as parents,” she said. “Without truth, accountability, and faith, darkness will define our children’s future. I will not surrender to that. And neither should you.”
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