A gunman has opened fire into a Catholic church and killed two children celebrating Mass before taking their own life. The shooter, armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, shot through the windows of the Annuciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at 8.20am local time.
Two children aged eight and 10 were killed in the shooting. Another 14 children and three adults were injured. FBI director Kash Patel said the agency is investigating the shooting ‘as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics’.The shooter has been identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman a former student at the school. They are believed to have taken their own life in the church car park.
Everything we know about the Minneapolis church shooter
Senior law enforcement officials have confirmed that the shooter was aged in their early 20s, had a limited criminal history, and had shot themselves dead after the attack.
Westman posted videos online, including two uploaded to YouTube just hours before the shooting, referencing suicide, ‘extremely violent thoughts and ideas’, and an apology to their family. At one point, they show a hand-drawn blueprint of the church layout and stab it with a combat knife.
Westman appears to make Annucation an ‘easy’ target that will cause
‘Maybe I could attack an event at the on-site church,’ Westman scribbled. ‘I think attacking a large group of kids coming in from recess is my best plan … Then from there I can go inside and kill, going for as long as I can.”
The video included a racist and an antisemitic message written on weapons, as well as a message calling for US president Donald Trump to be killed.
The videos, as well as the YouTube channel they were uploaded to, have now been removed from the website. Local news station KTTC reported that Westman had changed their name from Robert to Robin when they were 17. Court documents show that the request was submitted in 2019 and granted in January 2020. Because Westman was under the age of 18 at the time, it is understood their mother signed off on the name change. The application reportedly said that Westman ‘identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification’.
Robin Westman’s family life
Robin Westman’s mother, Mary Grace Westman, is believed to have worked at the church they later went on to attack. A post shared on the Church of the Annunciation Facebook page seemed to show Mrs Westman had retired from the church in 2021. The post said she had provided ‘such wonderful hospitality, friendship and compassion to all who gathered for the last five years’.
A 2016 edition of the school’s newsletter welcomed her as an administrative assistant in the business office, the BBC reports. The Minnesota Star Tribune reports that Westman’s father James owns a home less than one mile from the church. Police were pictured outside the house, which had been cordoned off with crime scene tape.
What was in Robin Westman’s manifesto?
Pictures of a note thought to have been written by Westman suggested they believed they were dying of lung cancer.
They blamed ‘vaping and other means’ for ‘destroying my body’ and described their ‘many pains’ as being ‘entirely self-inflicted’. In the deranged writings, Westman fantasises about ‘being that scary horrible monster standing over those powerless kids’ and expresses admiration for the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.
The chilling handwritten note says: ‘Only recently have I lost all hope and decided to perform my final action against this world.
‘I don’t want to kneel down for the injustices of this world. I want to die.
‘Unfortunately due to my depression, anger, and twisted mind, I want to fulfil a final act that has been in the back of my head for years.’
