“The shooter put a target on God himself,” Father Chris Alar told Newsmax on Thursday, after a transgender gunman murdered two children and injured 17 others during Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.

Police identified the attacker as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who opened fire on the church during the school Mass. A video manifesto released by authorities showed Westman had used an image of Jesus Christ for target practice prior to the massacre.

“Well, the reason we’re saying that it is [a hate crime] because it was at a Catholic church, at a Catholic Mass,” Alar said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “That’s why we’re making the indication that specific Catholicism as a target.

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