Annunciation Church shooting: Who was Robin Westman?

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Two children were killed, and 18 others were injured in a shooting Wednesday morning at Annunciation Catholic Church in what police are calling a deliberate act of violence. 

Here’s what’s known about the shooter: 

Annunciation shooting details

The backstory:

Before 8:27 a.m. on Aug. 27, the shooter approached Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis on the exterior side of the building and began shooting through windows toward children and worshipers who were sitting in the pews during mass that was celebrating the first week of school.

The shooter was armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, and shot off more than 100 rounds. 

There were 20 victims as a result of the shooting. Two children, 8 and 10, were fatally shot. Another 15 children, between the ages of 6 and 15, were injured by gunfire. Three adults in their 80s who were attending mass were also shot.

All remaining victims are expected to survive, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said on Wednesday.

What we know about the Annunciation shooter

What we know:

The shooter has been identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman. The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the parking lot of the church.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the suspect did not have an extensive criminal history and purchased all the guns legally, noting the suspect did purchase them "recently."

In 2019, the shooter legally changed their name from Robert to Robin. The name change filing states the shooter identified "as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification," according to court records obtained by FOX 9.

Federal officials have referred to the shooter as transgender, according to The Associated Press. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey decried hatred being directed at "our transgender community" during a news conference Wednesday morning.

The shooter's mother previously worked at Annunciation. A Facebook post from the school says she left the school in 2021. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara on Thursday confirmed the shooter had attended mass at Annunciation previously and attended the school. The shooter also attended St. Thomas Academy for freshman year. 

Authorities are still investigating why the shooter targeted the school and church.

Dig deeper:

Read more about the Annunciation mass shooting:

• What we know so far - Aug. 28 updates
• What we know about the victims
• What’s known about shooting suspect Robin Westman
• Victim recalls ‘super scary’ attack during mass
• Emergency audio reveals medical response, injuries
• How you can help
• What we know about the shooter's motive

What was the Annunciation shooter's motive?

What they're saying:

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara shared an update on Thursday on the shooter's motives, saying the shooter was filled with hate toward everyone except mass shooters.

The shooter had a "deranged fascination with previous mass shootings and very disturbing writings that demonstrate hatred towards many different individuals and different groups of people," O'Hara said, noting the shooter "fantasized about the plans of other mass shooters."

O'Hara said they know the shooter wanted to obtain notoriety for themselves and asked people to avoid naming the shooter.

Authorities continue to investigate the shooter's motive and the shooter's specific trigger for targeting the children at Annunciation. However, the shooter had attended mass at Annunciation previously and had attended the school. The shooter's mom was also an employee of the parish. O'Hara said authorities have not been able to contact the shooter's mother.

"So obviously there is a connection between that shooter and this particular parish and this school," O'Hara said. 

The shooter left behind hundreds of pages of writing describing the plan, mental state and hate, which included hate toward Black people, Mexican people, Christians, Jewish people, President Donald Trump and others, authorities said. 

"The shooter appeared to hate all of us. The shooter's heart was full of hate," U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said at Thursday's news conference, noting it appears the only group of people the shooter didn't hate were school shooters and mass murderers.

"More than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children, defenseless children. The shooter was obsessed with the idea of killing children. The shooter saw the attack as a way to target our most vulnerable among us while they were at their most vulnerable at school and at church," Thompson said. 

"The shooter wanted to watch children suffer," Thompson added.

The investigation:

As part of the investigation, police say search warrants were being executed at the church and three other locations around the metro connected to the shooter, including in Minneapolis, St. Louis Park and Richfield. No additional firearms were recovered, and the guns used in the shooting were purchased legally. Police believe the shooter acted alone.

The FBI says it is investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics. O'Hara says they haven't determined a motive, but the suspect did post a manifesto on YouTube, which has since been taken down. Authorities have also recovered hundreds of pages of evidence in which the shooter described hate for everyone except for mass shooters. 

"The shooter appeared to hate all of us. The shooter's heart was full of hate. There appears to be only one group that the shooter didn't hate. One group of people who the shooter admired. The group were the school shooters and mass murderers that are notorious in this country. The shooter idolized some of the most notorious school shooters and mass murderers in our country's history," U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

In an update earlier on Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI continues to investigate the "barbaric attack," noting they have gathered evidence "demonstrating this was an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology."

Patel provided the following updates on the investigation into the shooter's motive:

• The shooter left multiple anti-Catholic, anti-religious references both in the suspect's manifesto and written on the suspect's firearms.
• The shooter expressed hatred and violence toward Jewish people, writing "Israel must fall," "Free Palestine," and using explicit language related to the Holocaust.
• The shooter wrote an explicit call for violence against President Trump on a firearm magazine.

Patel said the investigation is ongoing, and the FBI will "employ all of our counter-terror tools to ensure this is fully investigated and deterred."

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