Father of 8-year-old boy killed in Minneapolis church shooting wants him remembered for his love

By STEVE KARNOWSKI, MARK VANCLEAVE and CLAUDIA LAUER, Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As the families of the two Catholic school students fatally shot while celebrating Mass at a Minneapolis church continue to wrestle with their grief, the father of the 8-year-old boy killed tearfully urged the community to remember his son for his love of family, fishing and cooking.

“Please remember Fletcher for the person he was and not the act that ended his life,” Jesse Merkel said Thursday.

Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski were killed and more than a dozen of their schoolmates were wounded Wednesday when a shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, fired 116 rifle rounds through the church’s stained-glass windows.

Surveillance video captured the attack during the fir