A Minneapolis mom recounted the harrowing moment she ran into Annunciation Catholic School to reach her 3-year-old son after hearing gunshots.

On Aug. 27, a shooter entered the Annunciation Church during the first mass of the school year and killed two children, 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski. Eighteen others also suffered injuries, including 15 children and three adult parishioners, NBC News reported. Following the tragedy, students who survived the shooting, family members of the two deceased children and more impacted members of the community have been speaking out.

Mom Laura DuSchane shared her experience about hurrying to reach her son, Rory, on the day of the shooting in an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune published Aug. 29.

DuSchane told the newspaper that she had just finished walking Rory to preschool at Annunciation Catholic School and returned to her home across the street when she first heard the continuous firing of gunshots. While eight months pregnant, DuSchane climbed onto a table in her yard to try to see through the smoke stemming from Annunciation Church.

She recalled turning to her neighbors, who were standing on their porches, and asking, “‘What do I do? My kid is in the school.’”

She decided to jog toward the school despite being advised to turn around for her safety.

“I said, ‘I’m running up there. I have to go find my kid,’” she recalled responding.

Police were on the scene by the time she arrived, the Star Tribune reported. “I had run past a lot of trauma already,” DuSchane said. “I saw kids filing out of the church. I saw my neighbor helping bloodied kids out of the church, and I think I was like, I can’t really spend too much time looking at this because I know what I’m seeing is really bad.”

She ran for the entrance and went into the school, located next to the church. She found Rory’s classroom and recalled telling his teacher, “There’s an active shooter, and we need to barricade this room.”

Inside the classroom, “17 3-year-olds sat and were quiet and didn’t move and didn’t run,” DuSchane shared.

After they learned the shooter died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, DuSchane helped direct Rory’s classmates to an area where they were reunited with their parents.

“I’m walking away, and there’s parents running at me, and I’m watching their faces,” she continued. “I only had to feel that feeling for about 15 minutes, and that was the worst 15 minutes of my entire life.”

DuSchane also shared how she’s talking about the scary day to her son.

“My child does not know what a shooter is, and doesn’t know what a gun is,” DuSchane said. “The narrative we talked about yesterday was that there was a monster at the school.”

Police work the scene following a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School on Aug. 27 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen / Getty Images

The suspect in the shooting was identified as 23-year-old former student Robin Westman.

NBC News reported that authorities believe Westman acted alone and that search warrants were executed at the church and three residences associated with the suspect.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said on TODAY Aug. 28 that while authorities did not find more weapons after executing the search warrants, they did discover “literally hundreds of pieces of evidence” as they work to confirm a motive.