By Daniel Payne
CNA Staff, Sep 2, 2025 /
13:40 pm
Police from a New Jersey township brought a K-9 unit to the Minneapolis area as part of a supportive visit after the deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church on Aug. 27.
The shooting, which was carried out during a Mass for the parish’s parochial school, killed eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski while injuring approximately 20 others. The killer took his own life after the shooting.
In a Facebook post on Sept. 1, the Gloucester Township Police Department said that police Chief David Harkins initially reached out to Diocese of Camden Bishop Joseph Williams, who is from Minneapolis and was ordained in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in 2002.
The chief and the bishop coordinated for the police force’s K-9 “Crisis Response Canines” team to travel to Annunciation Catholic Church to “visit with the parishioners” in the aftermath of the shooting.
Photos shared on the police force’s Facebook page showed K-9 unit dog Axel, a Rottweiler, with members of the Minneapolis church community.
“We are deeply grateful to have been asked by the bishop and his presbyterate to be present with the parishioners and community during this difficult time,” Crisis Response Canines said in the Facebook post.
Crisis Response Canines is a nonprofit group that sends certified K-9 dogs throughout the country to comfort individuals who have experienced trauma or tragedy.
The group says on its website that it has worked to “establish a nationwide network of canine crisis response teams who can be deployed immediately where they are needed most.”
Among the group’s recent deployments of dogs includes a fatal car accident in California, the Florida State University shooting in April, and a police line-of-duty death in Virginia Beach, Virginia in February.
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at the College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
