The shooter who opened fire in the church of a Minneapolis Catholic School, killing two children, has been identified as Robin Westman, 23.
Westman, who is transgender and previously went by Robert, shot through stained glass windows at children sitting on the pews inside Annunciation Catholic School’s church on Wednesday at about 8.30am, officials said.
She then turned the gun on herself.
The shooter, who grew up in Richfield, changed her name to Robin in 2020, at the age of 17, KARE 11 reported.
The killer’s mother was an employee at the school before her 2021 retirement and has five other children.
Two children aged eight and 10 were killed in the attack and at least 17 other victims – – 14 children and three adults – were injured, according to authorities.
Officials said they are looking into Westman’s motive but said she has no extensive known criminal history.
A now-deleted YouTube account that belonged to Westman shared what appeared to be a written manifesto addressed to family and friends just hours before the shooting.
Robin Westman, 23, was named as the shooter who killed two children at Annunciation Catholic School’s church Wednesday
A now-deleted YouTube account believed to belong to the shooter posted disturbing content hours before the massacre
Westman identified as a transgender woman and changed her name from Robert to Robin in 2020
The video appeared to show a drawing of a church. It then showed someone stabbing the drawing repeatedly as he quietly says ‘I’m going to kill myself.’
Other clips posted to the YouTube account show gun parts and semi-automatic rifle and a shotgun. The gun magazines had the names of other mass shooters written on them.
The phrases written on the magazines also included ‘for the children’ and ‘where is you God?’
Police said the gunman parked their vehicle near the school and they will be investigating it as part of their probe.
Officers were seen at the home where Westman lived, a short drive from the Catholic school. Authorities said they found more guns at the home.
The shooter was armed with three guns – a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. He fired all three weapons, which were purchased legally, during the attack, police said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooter approached the side of the church and shot through the windows toward the children sitting in the pews.
‘The coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church,’ said Brian O’Hara, who added that the gunman acted in a ‘deliberate act of violence.’
A gunman is dead after he stormed the Annunciation Catholic School’s Church and killed at least two children
Police were seen at the home where Westman lived, a short drive from the Catholic school
Parents await news of their children after a reported mass shooting at Annunciation Church
‘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.
It is unclear if the shooter fired any of the weapons from inside the church or carried out the entire mass shooting outside before going inside.
Police said at least two of the church doors appeared to have been blocked by two by fours before the shooting, suggesting the gunman wanted to trap the people inside.
The students at the Catholic grade school had started school on Monday and were attending mass when the shooter stormed the church, which is connected to the school.
Founded in 1923, Annunciation Catholic School had 391 students enrolled for the 2023-24 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The school goes from pre-K to eighth grade.
Hennepin Healthcare, the main trauma hospital in Minneapolis, said in a statement that they received 10 patients, including eight children — aged 6 through 14 — and two adults. Seven were considered to be in critical condition.
Senator Amy Klobuchar told MSNBC a seven-year-old watched as the gunman shot her friends in the back and neck.
Two children aged eight and 10 were killed in the attack and at least 17 other victims – – 14 children and three adults – were injured, according to authorities
‘These kids are doing an all-school Mass and had to watch several of her friends get shot — one in the back, one in the neck,’ Klobuchar said. ‘And they all got down under the pews.’
Recent social media posts from the school show children smiling at a back-to-school event, holding up summer art projects, playing together and enjoying ice pops.
Seven people were shot, one fatally, in a separate mass shooting near a Catholic high school in south Minneapolis yesterday reported Kare11.
Police said the suspect, who escaped in a vehicle and does not appear to have been arrested since, fired around 30 rounds from a high-velocity .223 rifle.
Authorities have not confirmed any connection between the shootings.