A fifth-grader whose harrowing tale of survival during the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting — thanks to a pal who shielded him — went viral last week, walked away with a bullet fragment lodged in his neck.
Weston Halsne, 10, was attending morning mass at Annunciation Catholic School last Wednesday when more than 100 rounds of gunfire burst through a stained glass window.
In the chaos, Weston ducked beneath the pews like they’d practiced during lockdown drills and was shielded by his friend Victor, who was shot in the process but also survived.
After the shooter turned the gun on himself — ending his rampage, Weston recounted the horror to reporters in an interview that quickly went viral.
“I was like two seats away from the stained glass windows, so the shots were, like, right next to me,” Weston said.
“I think I got, like, gunpowder on my neck,” he added.
Doctors, though, later discovered that Weston had a piece of a bullet fragment in his neck that was dangerously close to his carotid artery — making his survival a certified “miracle.”
“If it [the bullet fragment] went any further, he would’ve died,” Weston’s father, Grand Halsne, told NBC News.
Weston and his parents are working to confirm a surgery date to have the fragment removed.
Despite the near-fatal hit, Weston is still expected to make a full physical recovery, Halsne assured.
Mentally, however, the fifth-grader is still working through the trauma like many school shooting survivors. He’s afraid to be alone and flinches at “loud noises,” something Halsne attributes to the clear trauma of watching the student to his left be killed.
Harper Moyski, another 10-year-old in Weston’s grade, and Fletcher Merkel, 8, were both killed “where they sat” after deranged gunman Robin Westman fired through the window and barricaded a door inside before turning the gun on himself.
Westman was found dead, dressed in black “tactical” gear with three different guns he tried to use. He primarily used a semiautomatic rifle, but also had a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol that jammed during the rampage.
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