The Minnesota Star Tribune wins Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Annunciation shooting

The newsroom last won the award for its 2020 coverage of George Floyd’s murder and the ensuing unrest

Posted Monday, May 4, 2026 5:23 pm

Among the finalists

The staff of The Seattle Times was a finalist in the Breaking News category for its coverage of catastrophic flooding from a major storm system that remained over the Pacific Northwest for days, work that in real time warned residents, relayed the stories of affected communities and explained how weather and geography combined to cause the devastation.

Christopher Vondracek | The Minnesota Star Tribune

The Minnesota Star Tribune has won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for its newsroom-wide coverage of a shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church last summer.

Marjorie Miller, administrator of the Pulitzers, said in announcing this year’s awards Monday that the coverage included “powerful stories marked by thoroughness and compassion.”

It was 8:27 a.m. on Aug. 27 when a shooter opened fire on children, teachers and parents during a return-to-school service for Annunciation Catholic school, which is connected to the church.

In its application to the Pulitzer board for work produced in 2025, the Star Tribune noted the newsroom decided early on that it wouldn’t let the shooting be easily forgotten as just one more American tragedy. Instead, the staff would “hold up Annunciation’s pain and ask our readers to reckon with it.”