Lydia and her parents, Harry and Leah, were visited by Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance Wednesday.
MINNEAPOLIS — Lydia Kaiser, the 12-year-old who was injured in the Annunciation Church shooting while shielding a younger student, has been released from the hospital, according to a spokesperson with Children's Minnesota.
The spokesperson confirmed Saturday that all seven of the children admitted to the hospital had been discharged.
Lydia and her parents, Harry and Leah, were visited by Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance Wednesday. Harry said he read a note to the vice president, urging him to take action to reduce gun violence.
"Will you please promise to pursue, despite powerful lobbies, some commonsense bipartisan legislation as a starting point, so we can come out of our corners and find the values that we share so that this time some progress is made?" Harry said, while reading the note to reporters. "Thoughts and prayers haven’t been enough; many policies have been dismissed without even being studied or tried. It’s so complicated. I don’t claim to have the answers, but we have to commit to looking."
According to a GoFundMe set up for Lydia and her family, she is walking and talking, but she will need another surgery in the near future to replace a section of her skull that was removed to allow for swelling in her brain.
A military judge sentenced Pvt. Deron Gordon to over six years in prison for sexually assaulting a college student.
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier who sexually assaulted a college student in the barracks in 2024 was sentenced to more than six years in prison Friday.
A military judge sentenced Pvt. Deron Gordon, 20, to six years and three months in prison after he pleaded guilty to one specification each of sexual assault, abusive sexual contact and as a principal to indecent recording.
Gordon was previously charged with additional crimes, but those were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Gordon is one of four soldiers who were charged in in connection to the sexual assault of a college student, who is now a commissioned Army officer, in October 2024.
When Gordon pleaded guilty, he said that he and another soldier followed the college student into a bedroom after she had been drinking with them. He said she was unstable walking into the room and when they went inside she was on the bed and not responsive.
Gordon said he and the other soldier each proceeded to have sex with her and they filmed each other sexually assaulting her on Snapchat.
As part of his sentencing, Gordon will be reduced in rank to E-1 and dishonorably discharged from the Army.
Gordon will serve the remainder of his sentencing at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Once he is released, Gordon must register as a sex offender.
The three other soldiers who were charged in the incident are at different points in the legal process, and their cases are being treated separately.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Additional resources are available on the Washington State Department of Health's website.
KING 5’s Conner Board contributed to this report.
