4 Things to Know About Suspect in Minnesota Catholic School Shooting

As authorities investigate the motive for the shooter who opened fire into a Minneapolis Catholic school’s church during Mass on Wednesday, killing two children and wounding 18, several details have emerged about the suspect.

Hours after the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School on Aug. 27, federal officials identified the suspect as Robert “Robin” Westman, 23, and said on Thursday that he was a former student at the school.

After he approached the side of the building and shot through the church’s windows, Westman went to the parking lot, where he died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

The two children who died were Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10.

Investigators are still analyzing hundreds of pieces of evidence from the church and three local residences associated with Westman, including various electronic devices, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

“Everything we’ve seen so far is a classic pathway to an active shooter,” O’Hara told NBC’s “Today” show Thursday morning. “[But] nothing that we have seen specific to trigger the amount of hate that occurred yesterday.”

O’Hara told reporters on Wednesday that authorities had also retrieved an alleged video manifesto that Westman had scheduled to publish on YouTube after the incident, which has been removed from the platform with the help of the FBI.

The FBI said it was investigating the shooting as an “act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.”

Here’s what we know so far about Westman, the shooter who killed two and wounded 18 at a Minneapolis Catholic school church.

1. How it Happened

Just before 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Westman—armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol—walked to the side of Annunciation Catholic School’s church and shot through the windows toward the children who were seated at the pews during Mass. O’Hara said some children were still entering the building when Westman opened fire.

The police chief said Westman fired dozens of rounds from all three weapons and even tried to barricade doors to the side of the church during the shooting.

The shooter acted alone, had no known previous criminal history, and purchased the firearms legally, O’Hara said.

On Thursday, the police chief stated that law enforcement did not find any additional firearms after searching the three related residences.

2. Westman’s Mother Worked at Church

Mary Grace Westman, the shooter’s mother, worked at the Church of Annunciation, according to an August 2021 post on the church’s Facebook page celebrating her retirement after five years as an employee.

A 2016 church newsletter also announced her hiring as a new administrative assistant at its business office and that she was a member of Saint Agnes Church in St. Paul.

3. Name Change, Identity

When the shooter’s identity was revealed on Wednesday, federal officials said Westman was transgender.

Westman, whose birth name is Robert, petitioned a court in 2020 to change his name to Robin. The petition, which Westman’s mother signed, said the petitioner “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”

Former Kentucky state Rep. Bob Heleringer, Westman’s uncle, told The Associated Press that he barely knew Westman but was watching coverage of the shooting.

After a long pause when he first answered the phone, the former lawmaker said, “I don’t know what to say.”

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

Westman was the youngest child of one of Heleringer’s sisters, he said. The former lawmaker added that he last saw Westman at a family wedding years ago but has not had contact since.

At a news briefing Wednesday afternoon, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey criticized anyone who might use the shooting as an excuse to villainize the transgender community.

“We should be operating from a place of love for our kids. Kids died today. This needs to be about them,” Frey said.

4. Online Content

The alleged video manifesto was scheduled to be published on YouTube following the shooting, police said. The channel where it was found, titled “Robin W,” included at least two videos before YouTube administrators took the channel down. The videos do not show the face of the person speaking and also include images of Westman’s alleged writings.

One 10-minute-long video features a cellphone camera panning over a stockpile of weapons, ammunition, and loaded magazines with phrases etched into them, including “For the Children,” “Where is your God?” and “Kill Donald Trump.” Some of the words were written in Cyrillic.

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

“I regret everything. I didn’t ask for life. You didn’t ask for death,” the person added.

Later, after holding up a smaller firearm from the arsenal, the person says, “This one is for me. In case I need it.”

The camera also pans to a letter apparently written to the person’s family, which features an apology for how the shooting will affect their lives while expressing love and telling them to change their name and “move on” from the event.

The “Robin W” channel also featured a second, nearly 20-minute-long video featuring two written journals. The first, more than 150 pages long, features words in the Cyrillic alphabet. The second, more than 60 pages long, had its last entry dated for Aug. 21 and was also entirely written in Cyrillic.

The second notebook features a sticker on its inside cover of a semiautomatic AK-style rifle over a transgender equality flag. A sticker for the German industrial rock band KMFDM is next to it. One of the 1999 Columbine High School shooters had posted some of the band’s lyrics to his website before the shooting.

The band’s name is an acronym for Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, which the band loosely translates to “no pity for the majority.”

KMFDM has condemned violence and school shootings in past statements. However, several high-profile school shooters since Columbine have used references to the band or their shirts or stickers to draw an allusion to the Columbine shooting.

In the second video on the “Robin W” channel, the person can be heard breathing heavily and mumbling. The person says, “I’ll probably just upload a video on the day” before panning to what appears to be a hand-drawn layout of the church and pointing to two of its outside windows. The person then stabs the drawing with a knife.

O’Hara said on Thursday that law enforcement has found other writings believed to be Westman’s.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.