A former teacher of Minneapolis shooter Robin Westman reported concerns over her mental health years before she murdered two kids and injured 18 other churchgoers in a senseless attack.
The 23-year-old transgender shooter slaughtered eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski as they attended mass at the Annunciation Catholic Church, in Minneapolis, early on Wednesday morning.
When an older photograph taken before her transition appeared online after the shooting, art teacher Sarah Reely recognized her as a student who went by Bob in her classroom.
In a post to her Facebook page, she revealed that she knew Westman by the nickname ‘Bob’, adding: ‘I knew this was a kid who needed help.’
‘She was definitely odd, was really into furries and odd artwork and said some odd things, but wasn’t violent towards others to my knowledge’, Reely added.
According to Reely, Westman exhibited ‘evidence of self-harm’ on her arms, she added: ‘I reported a need for help because I saw the evidence of self-harm on her arms.
‘Self harm is either a cry for help, an indication of self hate, or both. But it’s always sign something is wrong. Then she transferred her again and she vanished.’
Reely clarified that ‘being odd isn’t a red flag’ but it became apparent that ‘she did not fit in well, as one might imagine would happen to a queer kid in a conservative environment, so I intentionally made a point to build a relationship with this student.’
The post was accompanied by a bizarre sculpture Westman once made Reely, one that she ultimately lost but ‘kept a picture of.’
‘She loved art,’ Reely recalled.
According to court papers filed in Dakota County, Minnesota, Westman changed her name from Robert to Robin in 2020 to reflect ‘[identifying] as a woman’.
But in a handwritten manifesto shared by the shooter in a YouTube video before opening fire, Westman appeared to question that decision.
‘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.’
Not long after opening fire, Westman died by suicide. A dispatcher could be heard relaying: ‘We have one suspect with a gunshot wound to the head – has a rifle and shotgun – he’s down right now.’
Reely criticized the politicization of the tragedy from both left and right wing supporters, arguing that calls for gun control in this case would have been pointless given Westman didn’t have a criminal record which should have barred her from carrying.
She also noted attacks on the transgender community from the right fail to recognize ‘almost all mass shooters have been cisgender men.’
Instead, she said Westman’s crime highlights ‘the snowball effect of multiple system failures at a national level.
‘Every murderer was once a kid in someone’s classroom who needed help, and that this issue is so much deeper and more complicated than we want to admit.’
‘We also need to do something about the lack of mental health support for troubled youth (the year long waitlists, the difficulty connecting with the correct resources, the stigma, schools being able to afford only ONE mental health specialist at schools with hundreds of kids to try and keep track of if they have any at all, and the COST especially without insurance to just get an evaluation are all barriers).
‘But we can’t even have a conversation about any of this because our country is so damned POLARIZED.’