Guests - Ava Chen, Joel Strabala, Betsy Smith, Lisa Von Geldern

Crisis in Minneapolis: School Shooting Claims Young Lives as Prayer Service Targeted

Breaking News: Tragedy Strikes Minneapolis Catholic School

A mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis has claimed multiple lives, including two children aged eight and ten. The horrific incident occurred Wednesday morning during a prayer service, with at least 17 others injured and four requiring surgery. The shooter, identified as a 22-year-old biological male who identified as female, took his own life at the scene.

"This is one of four shootings that started as of last night," explained Kathleen Winn during her China Watch Wednesday program. "They have not told us whether or not they're connected. And this is just unconscionable."

The tragedy highlights ongoing concerns about police staffing and response times in major cities. According to reports, police response was delayed because officers were dealing with another shooting elsewhere in the city.

"When there aren't enough police in a major city in critical times, when you need them there as soon as possible, that is the cost," Winn noted. "We need to get smarter about our police, our cities, and how we manage crime."

National Police Association Responds to the Tragedy

Betsy Brantner Smith, spokesperson for the National Police Association, joined the program to provide professional insights into the developing situation. According to Smith, the shooter had posted disturbing content online prior to the attack.

"He posted a video manifesto on YouTube. He has posted alleged photos of AR-15 magazines with writing on them, very disturbing writing, sexual, talking about children," Smith explained. "I watched parts of the video that a friend of mine provided me and it's one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen, and I was a cop for 29 years."

Law enforcement reported finding dozens of shell casings in the parking lot. The suspect was dressed in all black and armed with multiple weapons including a rifle, shotgun, and pistol. A smoke bomb was also found at the scene, though no improvised explosives were discovered.

Smith expressed frustration with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's emotional press conference, noting his statement about prayers: "The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey...just ranted about 'don't talk to me about prayers' is what he said. Don't talk to me about prayers. These children were literally praying while they were being shot."

School Security Concerns and Potential Solutions

The shooting has reignited debates about school security nationwide. Smith advocated strongly for enhanced security measures at schools across the country.

"We have got to harden the target when it comes to our schools," she emphasized. "When we go to the board of supervisors meetings, we have to go through a metal detector, a pat down by a deputy. Getting on a plane... Yet generally speaking, the security at our schools is very poor."

She pointed out the disparity between security measures for politicians versus children: "Why do we refuse to protect our kids when we protect our damn politicians?"

Smith suggested that retired law enforcement and military personnel could serve as volunteer security at schools, noting that many would willingly step up after incidents like this. "Every time one of these shootings happens, retired cops like me and retired military always raise their hand and say, 'Hey, we're ready. We're ready to volunteer at our local school.'"

Pattern of Transgender Identity in Mass Shootings

Both Winn and Smith expressed concern about what they see as a troubling pattern in recent mass shootings. Smith noted this was "at least the second school shooting of little children" involving a shooter with gender identity issues, referencing the Covenant School shooting in Nashville.

"We've had six or seven trans shootings in recent years," Smith claimed. "We need to understand the drugs that are being pumped into these young people who are born one gender."

She listed several recent mass shooters who reportedly identified as transgender or non-binary, including those responsible for shootings in Denver, Aberdeen, Nashville, Uvalde, Iowa, Philadelphia, and Colorado Springs.

"We've got to stop pretending that you can change your gender. And we've got to stop pretending that people who are gender confused... that it is a normal thing and that they can have a medical resolution to this," Smith argued. "This has now become a social contagion that we need to get a handle on in this country."

China Watch: CCP's Influence on Chinese Students in America

Earlier in the program, before news of the shooting broke, Winn spoke with Ava Chen from the New Federal State of China about concerns regarding Chinese Communist Party influence over Chinese students studying in American universities.

Chen highlighted how the Trump administration had recently shifted position on Chinese student visas, indicating plans to potentially double the number from 300,000 to 600,000. This announcement during a meeting with the South Korean president has drawn criticism from various political figures.

Chen emphasized that most Chinese students come to America seeking freedom and better education opportunities, but many become unwitting pawns of the CCP once here.

"The CCP has established a network of controlling all those Chinese students," Chen explained. "We talk about the organization that CCP has established within each university. It's called Chinese Students and Scholar Association. And they sending their espionage, the spies, taking over those cells that embedded in every university."

According to Chen, the CCP uses family members back in China as leverage to coerce students into cooperation. "The CCP embassies and consulates around the world, they were inviting those students to come to the offices... They brought in those students and they were threatening those students and saying, putting their grandma or the parents on the call and forced those students to do things."

Students face impossible choices: "If you do this to me, if you help me stealing this or sleeping with some politician, corrupt them or taking videos or whatever... then I will give you tuition free. I will sponsor you to get scholarship... But if you don't do that, your mom and your dad, your grandma is going to suffer."

Economic Pressure on American Universities

Chen also highlighted the economic factors driving American universities' dependence on international students, particularly from China.

"The Commerce Secretary Lutnick admitted on Laura Ingraham Fox News, and he was saying the bottom 15% of US college and university was simply bankrupt, shutting down without that revenue, without the international tuition coming from foreign students. And the number one of them is Chinese."

Chen described three main revenue sources for universities: government funding, tuition fees, and investments - many of which are in China. "If you follow the money, you will realize a lot of those Ivy League universities are no longer in the business of educating people. They're actually in the business of investment."

This economic leverage is part of how the CCP weaponizes the Chinese market and people's purchasing power against America, while continuing to operate espionage networks within the United States that target not just Chinese students but Americans as well.

"These are two separate concepts, the regime, the rogue regime, only controlled by a few handful, five CCP kleptocracy families. And the other side are the 1.4 billion Chinese people," Chen explained, emphasizing the distinction between the Chinese people and the CCP government.