Lydia Kaiser, a student who suffered a brain injury during the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, has been released from the hospital.

Lydia Kaiser, a student at Annunciation Catholic School, was severely injured in the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

She was injured while protecting a younger student, according to a verified GoFundMe.

A statement from the Kaiser family released by Children’s Minnesota hospital says that she returned home Saturday, ‘after more than a week of thousands of prayers, surgery and constant care from extraordinary medical staff.’

“She is strong and in good spirits,” the statement reads. “Please continue to keep her in your prayers.”

On Thursday, her parents said she had suffered a traumatic brain injury from a bullet and underwent two brain surgeries — one to remove bullet fragments and another ‘to alleviate the swelling and reduce the pressure on her brain caused by her injury.’

Lydia’s parents wrote that she was ‘making remarkable progress in her recovery’ at Children’s Minnesota. They met with Vice President JD Vance and shared their first public remarks on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the family shared an update on GoFundMe on Saturday.

“She is walking, she is talking, she is fighting and she is ever so brave. She has another surgery coming up in the near future. This will be to replace the section of her skull that was removed to allow for swelling of her brain. She will face this surgery with grace, bravery and unbelievable strength,” Jesse Wolf wrote.

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On Saturday, a Children’s Minnesota spokesperson said the hospital is no longer caring for any victims from the Annunciation shooting. Minneapolis hospitals admitted most of the 21 injured people in the aftermath. By Wednesday, only two children had remained hospitalized.

Sophia Forchas, 12, remains hospitalized in critical condition at HCMC as of Friday afternoon.

Two children died after the shooting: 10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel.

Fletcher’s funeral is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. A celebration of life for Harper is set for Sept. 14 at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in Minneapolis, according to an obituary.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Byron Buxton hit his 30th home run and the Minnesota Twins got the strongest pitching performance by right-hander Bailey Ober in nearly a month to break their six-game losing streak in a 5-1 victory Sunday afternoon against the Kansas City Royals.

Buxton started the top of the first inning against right-hander Michael Lorenzen with his 17th career leadoff homer and ninth of 2025. Buxton’s 30 homers overall build on a career high and tie Tom Brunansky for 10th all-time on the Twins long-ball list with 163. Brian Dozier is ninth at 167.

Ober (4-8) came in with a 5.23 ERA and had not picked up a win in 18 starts since May 3 but he allowed a run, four hits and a walk to go with six strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. He kept the Royals off the scoreboard until Vinnie Pasquantino hit an RBI single in the sixth.

Buxton exited the game in the bottom of the seventh, two innings after getting hit in the left knee with a pitch. He stayed in to run the bases and played defense in the bottom of the sixth.

An All-Star for the second time, Buxton was playing in his 109th game this season, the second straight year he played in at least 100 games. The 2017 season was the only other time he surpassed that mark, finishing with 140.

After righty Justin Topa left with an injury in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and runners at second and third, left-hander Génesis Cabrera walked rookie Carter Jensen to load the bases.

Mike Yastrzemski, representing the tying run, flied to center for the final out.

The Twins won for the first time this month and improved to 63-80. They have gone 29-52 since June 5.

Kody Clemens added a long two-run home run in the fourth, and Luke Keaschall took home on a double steal in the sixth.

Cole Sands pitched out of traffic in the sixth against Twins killer Salvador Perez, who hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. Sands did it again in the seventh when Nick Lofton ended a scoring threat with a 5-4-3 double play.

In the eighth against righty Justin Topa, Perez grounded to short with runners at first and second.

Perez came in with a .277/.315/.478 career line against the Twins with 35 home runs, 13th all-time against Minnesota.

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J.J. McCarthy will play his first meaningful snaps of football in 20 months when he steps under center for the Vikings on Monday.

Between his national championship victory and his NFL debut in Chicago was a major knee injury and subsequent recovery that resulted in, effectively, a season off from football.

A logical observer would expect maybe some clunkiness and rust out of the gates. Nevermind the extended time off — nerves also could very well factor in for a 22-year-old playing on the road on Monday Night Football with the nation watching.

And, yet, Minnesota can’t afford any of that.

The Vikings’ early season schedule ahead of their Week 6 bye looks like a soft runway from which their young quarterback can ascend. Of their first five opponents, only Pittsburgh made the playoffs a year ago. Monday’s bout is the only true road game in that span.

It’s not far-fetched to believe Minnesota — a 14-win team a season ago — could go 4-1 in its first five games, if not 5-0.

The thing is … it may have to if the Vikings plan to contend in what may be the most difficult division in football. Because things get ugly after the bye, where the first four contests read: home vs. Eagles, at the Chargers, at Detroit and back home to take on Baltimore — all playoff teams from a year ago and potential Super Bowl contenders this season.

It doesn’t get much easier from there, as their final seven games feature two border battles against Green Bay, another date with Detroit, road games in Dallas and Seattle, and a home bout against the reigning NFC runner up, Washington.

Rough.

Even if McCarthy is in a strong rhythm come mid-October and the Vikings are a better team than they were a season ago, the schedule is significantly more difficult.

No team faces the league’s best on a week-to-week basis and emerges unscathed. All four of its losses came to Detroit and the Rams, a pair of excellent foes.

But last year’s team was excellent at taking care of business. Minnesota consistently handled teams at or below its level. That’s how you guarantee success in a season. The challenge for Minnesota appears to be, at least on its surface, that the “easy” part of the schedule is the early early portion of it. So, McCarthy needs to be ready right now.

So does Minnesota’s defensive unit, which could be asked to prop up the offense if there are any early sputters. Because that can’t equate to losses. Yes, Monday’s bout in Chicago is just Week 1, which can be called “a liar” in the NFL. Early results often aren’t predictive of season-long success.

But it has been for the Vikings of late. The Vikings are 3-3 in their past six season openers. In the years they started 1-0, they made the playoffs; when they started 0-1, they didn’t.

The slate sets the table for that streak to continue, one way or another. If Minnesota is somehow under .500 heading into the bye, there’s little opportunity for it to recover.

It seems as though the Vikings understand the same. They didn’t appear to even consider rolling out a pedestrian wide receiver corps for the first three weeks of the season while Jordan Addison served his suspension. Draft assets were flipped to acquire Adam Thielen because early production is paramount.

So, sorry, J.J. The pressure is on directly out of the gates. No, that probably isn’t fair. But it is the reality.

Welcome to the NFL.

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Officials are investigating a fatal helicopter crash near a Lakeville airport on Saturday afternoon, saying that it was too early to release information about the number of victims or specifics about the aircraft, including how it crashed.

Lakeville police were called to the crash scene west of Airlake Airport about 2:45 p.m., according to a post on the city’s website that provided the following details about the crash.

Police and fire personnel who responded to the crash west of Highway Avenue near 219th Street West determined there were no survivors.

City officials said the crash was in a non-residential and non-commercial area and they believe that the occupant or occupants of the helicopter are the only victims.

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