Minneapolis church shooting: What we know about gunman who killed 2, wounded 18

The shooter who killed two children and injured 18 worshippers attending Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school was quiet and seemed to resent school as an eighth grader there seven years ago, a former classmate said.

Officials identified the shooter as Robin Westman, 23, and said Thursday that Westman was a former student at Annunciation Catholic School. The ex-classmate recalled Westman once hid in the bathroom to avoid going to the all-school Mass. YouTube videos allegedly posted by the shooter suggest Westman experienced depression and expressed admiration for at least a dozen other acts of mass violence, but didn’t spell out any specific ideology.

Armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, Westman approached the side of the church at Annunciation Catholic School and fired more than a hundred rounds through the windows just before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Westman was found dead in the parking lot from what authorities believe was a self-inflicted gunshot.

Westman legally purchased the weapons, had no arrest history and acted alone, the chief said.

In response to a request for any records of police contact with the shooter in the last decade, the Eagan Police Department, southwest of Minneapolis, sent two heavily redacted documents. The first from 2018 is listed as a mental health call for a welfare check for a child with parents Mary Grace Westman and James Westman, but the case narrative was redacted. A second report from 2016 involving a criminal complaint was entirely redacted.

Officials have recovered hundreds of pieces of evidence from the church and three associated residences in the area, including additional writings and electronic devices, O’Hara said. Authorities also were scouring the videos, now removed from public view, and other online content.

The FBI is investigating Wednesday’s shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics, officials said.

A CLASSMATE REMEMBERS WESTMAN

Lily Kletter, 22, couldn’t figure out why Robin Westman’s face looked so familiar until she looked back at a photo from the Annunciation Class of 2017.

“I didn’t know them super well, but they were in my grade,” Kletter said of Robin Westman, known to classmates as Bob.

Their class was small, about 50 kids, most of whom had known each other since they were little, Kletter said. Robin Westman came in at some point in middle school, she said.

Kletter remembered Westman from a few classes, saying Westman would sit in the back and “kind of skulk around.” Westman had a couple of friends, but Kletter remembers often seeing Westman sitting alone during their short, 15-minute lunch break.

“I remember they had a crazy distaste for school, especially Annunciation, which I always thought was pretty interesting because their mom was on the parish board,” she said. “I remember this one time, like, them hiding in the bathroom for a really long time because they didn’t want to go to Mass.”

THE SHOOTER'S MOTHER ALSO WORKED AT ANNUCIATION

An August 2021 post on the Facebook page for the Church of the Annunciation celebrated the retirement of Mary Grace Westman after five years working there.

Kletter remembers Robin’s mom, Mary Grace, even more. She worked in the front office at school and in the parish. Kletter said their school curriculum included confirmation, one of Catholicism’s seven sacraments, often seen as the “sacrament of maturity’ where young people declare their faith. Mary Grace Westman led some of the classes on how faith could be weaved into their lives, Kletter said.

Robin Westman was in that class but didn’t participate and was not confirmed, Kletter said. “They sat in the back quietly,” she said.

A phone call and text message to a cellphone number listed as belonging to Mary Grace Westman was not answered Wednesday afternoon. Officials also have not yet successfully reached the shooter’s mother, O’Hara said on Thursday.

Associated Press reporters unsuccessfully attempted to reach the shooter’s father at an address listed as his residence. Phone calls and text messages to numbers associated with Robin Westman’s siblings also were not answered.

Police have not yet identified any particular grievance or triggering event with the church, O’Hara said.

Federal officials referred to Westman as transgender. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey condemned anyone who would use the shooting to villainize the transgender community.

Westman’s gender identity wasn’t clear. In 2020, a judge approved a petition, signed by Westman’s mother, asking for a name change from Robert to Robin, saying the petitioner “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”

Westman’s uncle, former Kentucky state lawmaker Bob Heleringer, told The Associated Press he barely knew Robin Westman — the youngest child of one of his sisters — but was watching coverage of Wednesday’s tragedy.

“I wish he had shot me instead of innocent schoolchildren,” Heleringer added.

A spokesperson for RISE, a medical marijuana dispensary company, confirmed that Westman worked at one of its Minnesota dispensaries for “several months this year,” but said Westman was not employed with RISE at the time of the shooting.

WHAT WAS POSTED ONLINE?

Police said they were aware of videos and writings that may have come from the shooter. On a YouTube channel titled “Robin W” there were at least two videos posted before the channel was taken down by site administrators. The videos never show the face of the person speaking.

On display throughout the videos are specific references to more than 15 different perpetrators and episodes of mass violence in the U.S. and abroad, both recent and from before the shooter was born.

In one, the video pans across a cache of weapons and ammunition and the person filming picks each up and shows it off to the camera. The weapons and magazines were tagged with graffiti showing a fascination with people who had committed acts of public violence and included things like, “kill Donald Trump” and “Where is your God?”

During the video, the person filming sings the word “tomorrow” and says, “I’m sorry to my family... that’s the only people I’m sorry to.”

The video also shows a letter written to the person’s family, apologizing for what the shooting will mean for them, expressing love for them and saying to change their name and “move on.” The letter noted that they long felt depression and had suicidal thoughts and have thought about doing this for a long time, but only recently decided to carry out the shooting.

A second, almost 20-minute-long video shows nearly 200 pages of two different journals mostly written in what appears to be the Cyrillic alphabet.

The second journal had a last entry dated Aug. 21 and had a sticker on the inside cover depicting a semiautomatic AK-style rifle on top of a trans equality pride flag. During the video, the person flips to what appears to be a drawing of the layout of a church, pointing to two outside windows and then stabbing the illustration with a knife.

- Ends