(Screen capture via New York Post/YouTube)
Two children are dead and 17 others, including 14 children, were wounded after a gunman opened fire at a Catholic school in Minneapolis.
Authorities identified the shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, a transgender woman who began shooting inside Annunciation Catholic Church during morning Mass on Wednesday around 8:30 a.m. Westman killed two children, ages eight and 10, and injured three elderly parishioners in addition to the 14 children inside the church.
Police confirmed that Westman legally purchased the weapons used in the attack — a rifle, shotgun, and pistol — had no prior criminal history, and died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to a yearbook obtained by CNN, Westman graduated from Annunciation Catholic’s grade school in 2017. Fox News reported that their mother, Mary Grace Westman, worked at Annunciation Catholic School as a secretary until 2021.
The New York Post reported that Westman left behind a manifesto, suggesting the attack had been carefully planned.
On a YouTube channel under Westman’s name, several videos were scheduled to post around the time of the shooting. The clips showed Westman’s weapons and magazines, some inscribed with phrases such as “kill Donald Trump” and “for the children.” Other videos depicted Westman flipping through a notebook containing antisemitic writings, hand-drawn maps of the school, “defend equality” trans Pride stickers, and references to an admiration for mass shooters — particularly Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook killer. The manifesto itself appears to be written in a code combining Cyrillic characters and English phonetics.
“It’s my strongest desire that no state, no community, no school ever experiences a day like this,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said.
“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,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.
O’Hara noted that the surviving victims are expected to recover, though they sustained a range of injuries.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also addressed the tragedy, stressing that meaningful changes are needed to prevent another senseless act of violence.
“It can’t just be words — there needs to be action. We’ve seen school shooting after school shooting. We’ve seen church shootings carried out by horrible actors,” Frey said.
He also condemned attempts to exploit the tragedy to target marginalized groups, particularly trans people.
“Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community, or any other community out there, has lost their sense of common humanity. We should not be operating out of a place of hate for anyone.”
National LGBTQ rights organizations echoed the call for compassion for the trans community, while condemning scapegoating.
“We are heartbroken by the devastating shooting in Minneapolis. Our deepest sympathies go out to the families who lost loved ones, the survivors, and the entire community now forced to grieve the unimaginable,” said Brandon Wolf, the Human Rights Campaign’s National Press Secretary and a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting. “Too many communities have had to live this nightmare too many times. Grief is not enough. For far too long, our nation has endured an avalanche of gun violence — tragedies that could have been prevented with lifesaving, common-sense gun laws that certain lawmakers block at every chance. No child should go to school fearing for their life. And while we don’t yet know all the facts, one thing is clear: scapegoating an entire marginalized community in a moment of national grief is wrong, dangerous, and dehumanizing. This tragedy is part of a devastating and preventable epidemic of gun violence. Enough is enough.”
Kierra Johnson, president of the National LGBTQ Task Force, emphasized unity over division:
“The mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School deserves more than the platitude of ‘thoughts and prayers.’ Predictably, those who rush to say ‘don’t politicize mass shootings’ while the gun is still warm are also quick to demonize transgender people and indict an entire community for the actions of one person. This is a time for compassion — for supporting those grieving — not for fueling division. While many in the LGBTQ community have experienced friction with some religious groups, we must come together to create dialogue and understanding, not further wedges.”
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