Robin Westman Obituary, Death; – The suspect who shot and killed two children and hurt at least 17 others as they attended mass during the first week of school in Minnesota was identified as a man in his 20s claiming to be transgender, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the suspect — who was later named as Robin Westman — was found dead in the back of the church parking lot from what authorities believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Wednesday morning.
The coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life,” O’Hara said at a news conference, adding that authorities believe he was the sole shooter who didn’t have a known criminal history with police. “We are looking through information left behind to try and determine some type of motive.
Noem described the shooter as a “degrand monster.”
This deranged monster targeted our most vulnerable: young children praying in their first morning Mass of the school year. This deeply sick murderer scrawled the words ‘For the Children’ and ‘Where is your God?’ and ‘Kill Donald Trump’ on a rifle magazine,” Noem wrote on X.
This level of violence is unthinkable. Our deepest prayers are with the children, parents, families, educators, and Christians everywhere. We mourn with them, we pray for healing, and we will never forget them,” she added.
Citing unnamed sources, The New York Post said a 20-minute YouTube video and manifesto that was shared hours before the shooting was connected to Westman.
In the video, a hand slowly turns the pages of a red notebook, which is laid out on top of what appears to be schematic gun diagrams,” according to the media outlet. “Each page is filled with inscrutable handwritten scrawl, an occasional plume of smoke is seen from the bottom of the screen as the person turning the pages coughs and occasionally maniacally giggles.”
The media outlet also said other videos show “an obsession with mass shooters,” as well as guns and bullets. One person on social media posted alleged documents that claimed the suspect’s mother, Mary, signed documents in 2020 to allow her son to legally change his name from Robert to Robin.
The mother also allegedly used to work at the school but has since retired. O’Hara said the suspect, who was armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, stood outside Annunciation Roman Catholic Church in Minneapolis when he began firing through the windows on Wednesday shortly before 8:30 a.m.
O’Hara said two children — ages 8 and 10 — were killed as they sat in church pews. He said several people who attended the mass were hurt.
This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” said the police chief, who noted that a wooden plank was placed to barricade some of the side doors.
O’Hara said 17 of the wounded included 14 children, with two in critical condition. He said police rescued multiple children who were hiding inside the church, as other first responders tended to the victims and took them to area hospitals.
Our hearts are broken for the families who have lost their children, for these young lives that are now fighting to recover, and for our entire community that has been so deeply traumatized by this senseless attack,” he said. “We will stand together to protect our children, our schools, and our houses of worship.”
Children’s Minnesota, a pediatric trauma hospital, said in a statement five children were admitted for care.
Hennepin Healthcare, which has Minnesota’s largest emergency department, said it also was caring for patients from the shooting.
Bill Bienemann, who lives a couple of blocks away and has long attended mass at Annunciation Church, said he heard dozens of shots, perhaps as many as 50, over as long as four minutes.
I was shocked. I said, ‘There’s no way that could be gunfire,’” he said. “There was so much of it. It was sporadic.”
Bienemann’s daughter, Alexandra, said she attended the school from kindergarten to 8th grade, finishing in 2014. After she heard of the shooting, she said she was shaking and crying, and her boss told her to take the day off.
It breaks my heart, makes me sick to my stomach, knowing that there are people I know who are either injured or maybe even killed,” Alexandra Bienemann said. “It doesn’t make me feel safe at all in this community that I have been in for so long.”
