Who is Robin Westman? What we know about suspect in Minneapolis church shooting that left two children dead and 17 others hurt
Hours after the deadly shooting unfolded inside a Catholic school in Minnesota, police identified Robin Westman as the suspected shooter.
The first gunshots rang out at about 8.30 a.m. inside the Annunciation Catholic School in a south side suburb of Minneapolis as schoolkids and teachers gathered for the first Mass of the school year, authorities said.
Westman, 23, dressed all in black and armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, fired dozens of rounds through the stained-glass windows into Annunciation Church after baricading its doors shut.
Two children, aged eight and 10, were shot dead in the pews of the church while 17 others, including 14 children aged six to 15 and three parishioners in their 80s, were injured, police said. Westman died by a self-inflicted gunshot as law enforcement rushed to the scene.
The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime against Catholics, while President Donald Trump offered his condolences to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and ordered flags to half-staff.
As police search for a motive for the attack, including looking into a possible video manifesto published by Westman, here is what we know about Wednesday’s tragic incident:
Who was the shooter?
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Robin Westman, formerly Robert, legally changed their name in 2019 after identifying as a woman, according to court documents.
Westman doesn’t have a criminal history, and police are still trying to determine a motive for the attack.
The suspect’s mother, Mary Westman, retired from her job as a secretary at the Annunciation church in 2021 after five years, according to social media postings. She was also on the honor roll of school donors for having given up to $5,000, according to the Washington Post.
The youngest of three growing up in Hastings, Minnesota, Westman was taken to church by her father, according to The Post.
Waestman’s maternal uncle, Robert Heleringer, a former Republican representative in the Kentucky General Assembly, described their family’s strictly Catholic upbringing in multiple op-eds published in the 2010s.
A 2017 Annunciation yearbook seen by the Minnesota Star-Tribune showed that Westman, who then went by Robert, attended the school for at least one year. The newspaper said that she quoted the French band Daft Punk when giving advice to younger students, writing: “Work it. Make it. Do it. Makes us. Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger.”
The teenager spent the next few years jumping from school to school, with an official with Minnesota Transitions Charter School confirming to the Star-Tribune that Westman attended one of its schools for just three months, leaving in October 2017. Westman graduated from Southwest High School in Minneapolis in 2021, records show.
Westman had worked at a Rise medical cannabis dispensary, with her last day reportedly August 16. A co-worker told the Star-Tribune that she had been disciplined for lateness and skipping work.
On the day of the attack, Westman wore black clothing and “cargo-type pants,” O’Hara said, and was armed with a rifle, shotgun and a pistol — all of which were lawfully purchased.
What was the motive?
The motive behind the tragedy was not immediately clear and police continued their investigation into Thursday.
However, O’Hara condemned the attack as “a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping.”
A vigil was held Wednesday evening at the Academy of Holy Angels to honor the victims, with speakers including Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and state Senator Amy Klobuchar.
O’Hara said Wednesday afternoon that investigators were scouring through a video “manifesto” which was posted to YouTube to “try and develop a motive.”
What does social media show?
Police say that before Wednesday’s attack, Westman timed a series of YouTube videos to be posted to coincide with the attack.
The videos, which were pulled from the platform, show weapons etched with racial slurs and a death threat against President Donald Trump. They included “psycho killer” and “suck on this!” and “6 million wasn’t enough.”
Westman also shared their reverence for six mass shooters, including Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.
The names also included Robert Bowers, the gunman in the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and “Rupnow,” an apparent reference to Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow who opened fire at Wisconsin’s Abundant Life Christian School in 2024.
One weapon is also mentioned “Breivik,” seemingly referencing Anders Behring Breivik, a neo-Nazi who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011.
In another 20-minute video, Westman flipped through the pages of a journal filled with text that appears to be English written using Cyrillic script. In that video, Westman can be heard saying: “I love my family” and “I can’t deal with this anymore.”
“Sick f*** sick f*** murderer,” read in massive all-caps letters on another page. The last page shown in the video reads: “The end. I’m so sorry.” It’s signed “Robin” with a heart drawn next to it.
In another clip, a knife stabs the center of a page depicting the layout of a church, complete with drawings of the doorways, the pews, a cross and even a compass to show which direction it faces.
Yet another clip shows the suspect showing off guns and ammunition. Silver ink is scrawled on each of the black weapons. “Kiss me” is written on the barrel of one gun, while the names of famous mass killers are written on another.
