By Andy Rose

(CNN) — Weston Halsne knew immediately that something had hit him during the shocking mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis last week.

“I think I got gunpowder on my neck,” Halsne told reporters minutes after the attack at Annunciation Catholic Church that killed two young students and injured more than a dozen other children, along with three adults.

Now his family says Weston’s injuries are worse than they first thought.

“Since the interview, it has been discovered that Weston will need surgery to remove a bullet fragment that is lodged in his neck, dangerously close to his carotid artery,” his aunt, Allison Hawes, said in a post on their GoFundMe page.

The clear-headed account from the fifth grader of the terrifying spray of bullets that sent a sanctuary full of children to the floor while celebrating Mass – along with the credit he gave to a classmate for saving his life – is one of the most indelible moments of the tragedy.

“I just ran under the pew, and then I covered my head. My friend Victor saved me, though, because he laid on top of me, but he got hit (in the back),” Weston said. “He is really brave.”

His family says they have been “awed by his persistence, and charmed by his earnestness.”

“In spite of everything, this 10-year-old boy was able to express appreciation for his friends and pray for their recovery,” Hawes wrote.

Halsne said he was only two seats from the stained-glass window that was shattered by gunfire from multiple weapons, leaving more than 100 casings behind before the shooter took her own life.

He was already prepared for the idea of reacting quickly to a shooting, he said, following emergency response drills at the school.

“We practice it like every month,” said Halsne.

The family did not say in its announcement about Weston’s injury when the surgery to remove the shrapnel will be performed. His father told NBC News it was an extraordinarily close call.

“If it went any further, he would’ve died,” Grant Halsne said.

Despite Weston’s bravery in the face of deadly violence, Halsne told NBC that his son is now afraid to be alone.

“He’s scared of loud noises,” said Weston’s father.

And he is not the only student scarred by the violence.

“You’re supposed to go to a church to feel safe,” 11-year-old survivor Chloe Francoual told CNN. “I don’t feel safe anymore in that church.”

The parish celebrated its first Mass since the shooting in an auditorium Saturday evening, with Father Dennis Zehren recalling the moments the shots rang out.

“The voices cried out, ‘Down! Down! Get low! Stay down!’” he said tearfully.

Before the service, Zehren acknowledged his own sense of helplessness in the moment of the attack, unable to save the lives of 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski.

“If I could have got between those bullets and the kids,” he said. “That’s what I was hoping to do.”

The-CNN-Wire
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