Harrowing images have captured the shocking aftermath of the Minneapolis church shooting where 116 bullets ricocheted through the building’s stained-glass windows at the small children sat praying inside.
A statue of the Virgin Mary is seen riddled with bullet holes, turning a once beautiful symbol of faith and hope into a reminder of the horror that unfolded at the Annunciation Catholic Church Wednesday morning.
The century-old church’s stained-glass windows are now boarded up and the doors barricaded shut.
Outside, a make-shift memorial with two wooden crosses honors each of the slain victims.
Eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski, 10, were both killed in the attack at the hands of 23-year-old mass shooter Robin Westman.
Another 18 victims – 15 of them children – were injured.
Flowers, cards and stuffed animals left behind by mourners now cover the sidewalk near the church’s entrance as the tight-knit community comes together in grief.
On Friday, mourners left messages of hope in chalk and were seen kneeling on the grass outside the church.
Westman, who identified as transgender, sprayed bullets through the church windows during a celebratory back-to-school mass.
Before beginning the onslaught, Westman used wooden planks to barricade the church’s two side doors shut.
The shooter was dressed in black ‘tactical’ gear and armed with a rifle, shotgun and handgun – all used in the slaughter and purchased legally.
Westman died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Investigators have now recovered hundreds of pieces of evidence from the church and searched three homes associated with the 23-year-old shooter.
Inside Westman’s father’s home, police seized a Condor tactical vest with ‘various attachments not related to law enforcement/security,’ the search warrant states.
Officers also recovered two external media storage devices and a collection of documents.
The motive for the attack remains unclear.
But, in YouTube videos posted online, timed to go live with the massacre, Westman shared a string of hate-filled writings and detailed the sick plans.
Westman had a ‘deranged fascination’ with mass killings and school shooters, and suggested in the manifesto that there was not one singular motive for the attack.
The disturbing document revealed a ‘hatred of almost everyone’ – with police saying the only group of people the killer showed any care for was fellow school and mass shooters.
In some of the chilling videos, Westman shows off a stash of ammunition, guns and magazines, covered in unhinged writings.
The killer had recently broken up with a romantic partner and was staying with a friend in the aftermath of the break-up, Westman’s father told police.
The gender of Westman’s former ‘romantic partner’ is unclear.
Before Westman was unmasked as the shooter, neighbors said they never noticed any suspicious behavior and said the killer appeared to live a normal life.
One neighbor claimed Westman ‘didn’t stand out’ and appeared to be a ‘normal young person’, Fox News reported.
‘[Westman] looked like any other 20-something-year-old. Came into the building, ordered fast food, went to work, came home. [Westman] had friends. Nothing stood out,’ the resident said.
Another neighbor said that if Westman had done ‘anything beyond sketchy’, someone in the complex would have ‘called long before now’.
Westman – who attended the school targeted in the attack – was previously known as Robert before undergoing a legal name change name in 2020.
According to court papers filed in Dakota County, Minnesota, Westman wanted to be known as Robin to reflect that Westman identified ‘as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification’.
But in a handwritten manifesto shared by the shooter in a YouTube video before opening fire, Westman appeared to question the decision to transition.
Westman complained about being ‘tired of being trans’ and ‘brainwashed’.
‘I only keep [the long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,’ the killer wrote in a scrawled cryptic message.
‘I can’t cut my hair now as it would be an embarrassing defeat, and it might be a concerning change of character that could get me reported.
‘It just always gets in my way. I will probably chop it on the day of the attack.’
Westman also wrote about struggling with how to identify, adding: ‘I don’t want to dress girly all the time but I guess sometimes I really like it. I know I am not a woman but I definitely don’t feel like a man.’
Under Minnesota law, changing legal name is far more straightforward than if an individual wishes to change their official birth certificate.
Westman only had to petition for the name change, but to alter a birth certificate, the killer would need a doctor’s letter showing ‘medical certification of appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition’.
It is not known if the killer ever tried to do this, and it is unclear if doctors ever prescribed medication for Westman’s gender transition.
It is also unknown if Westman had ever taken any gender-affirming medications.
Police said Westman legally purchased the weapons used in the massacre, had no arrest history and acted alone.
Westman penned a suicide note, addressed to ‘my family and friends’, before carrying out the deadly shooting.
The disturbing four-page note said the killer claimed to be ‘corrupted by this world’ and had ‘learned to hate what life is”.
‘I have wanted this for so long. I am not well. I am not right. I am a sad person, haunted by these thoughts that do not go away,’ Westman wrote.
‘I know this is wrong, but I can’t seem to stop myself. I am severely depressed and have been suicidal for years. Only recently have I lost all hope and decided to perform my final action against this world.’
Westman concluded by asking for ‘prayers’ for the shooting victims and their loved ones.
As police continue to search for a motive, it has emerged that police were called to the Westman home in Hastings, Minnesota, at least twice before.
In January 2018, a police officer in Eagan, Minnesota, was dispatched to the family’s home over a mental heal issue, according to a heavily-redacted police report obtained by NBC News.
The officer notes in the report that he ‘assisted Mendota Heights with a check welfare on a juvenile’.
The name of that juvenile and what exactly prompted police to be summoned to the three-bedroom home were redacted.
Police were also dispatched to the Westman home two years prior when they responded to a report of a ‘criminal offense’.
But the report blacks out all of the details describing the event.
Still, police said authorities did not have any information indicating that the school shooter suffered from any type of mental illness that would preclude the individual from obtaining pistols or semiautomatic weapons under Minnesota’s red flag law.
‘There is nothing in the investigation so far that would lead us to believe that anything was missed,’ he said, noting that beyond a traffic ticket Westman did not have a police record.