PROFILE - What we know about US Catholic school shooter

ISTANBUL

A shooter opened fire Wednesday during a morning mass at a Catholic school in Minneapolis in the US state of Minnesota, killing two children and injuring at least 17 other people.

“The shooter has been identified as Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on the US social media company X’s platform.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem provided additional information.

"We have confirmation that the shooter at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, MN was a 22 year-old man, claiming to be transgender," she said on X.

“Two young children, ages 8 and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters near the scene of the shooting.

“Seventeen other people were injured, 14 of them being children. Two of those children are in critical condition,” said O’Hara.

The shooter “ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church,” he said, adding that the suspect acted alone.

O’Hara said a vehicle suspected to have been used by the shooter was being searched and the motive was yet unknown.

According to the Minnesota news outlet KARE11, Westman had attended the school for at least one year and had visited it in the past week while teachers prepared for the upcoming school year.

Court documents sourced by KARE11 show that when Westman was 17, they had applied in Dakota County, Minnesota to change their birth name from Robert to Robin, which was granted in January 2020.

Westman's mother was an employee at Annunciation Catholic School before she retired in 2021, according to the Daily Mail.

Social media posts

Footage on social media ostensibly from a YouTube channel run by Westman showed a roughly 1,000-word note left to the family of “Robin M Westman” recounting suicidal and potentially violent thoughts.

The videos also show an unseen figure, assumed to be Westman, brandishing firearms and ammunition, including a pistol, shotgun and a rifle, which police said were the weapons used Wednesday.

A gun used in the shooting had antisemitic and anti-Israel writings across it, according to the US-based Jewish advocacy group the Anti-Defamation League.

Westman did not have an extensive criminal history and purchased the firearms used in the shooting legally, according to local police.

Posthumous letter

In a letter discovered posthumously, Westman wrote that they had cancer caused by a vaping habit.

“I think I am dying of cancer. It's a tragic end as it's entirely self-inflicted. I did this to myself as I cannot control myself and have been destroying my body through vaping and other means,” the shooter wrote.

Westman went on to write that they wanted “to go out on my own means.”

“Unfortunately, due to my depression, anger and twisted mind, I want to fulfill a final act that has been in the back of my head for years,” Westman wrote. ​​​​​​​

The note was signed with the name “Robin M Westman, 2002-2025” and what appeared to be a bird drawing, according to the Daily Mail.