Shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Suspect is Reportedly Transgender
>Shooting at Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 2 Children Dead, 17 People Injured
archive.ph/deyFd
<A shooter opened fire with a rifle Wednesday through the windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis and struck some of the nearly 200 children celebrating Mass during the first week of school, killing two and wounding 17 people in an act of violence the police chief called “absolutely incomprehensible.”
<Armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, 23-year-old Robin Westman approached the side of the church and shot dozens of rounds through the windows toward the children sitting in the pews during Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School just before 8:30 a.m., Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at news conferences. He said the shooter then died by suicide.
<Federal officials referred to Westman as transgender, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey decried hatred being directed at “our transgender community.” Westman’s gender identity wasn’t clear. In 2020, a judge approved a petition, signed by Westman’s mother, asking for a name change from Robert to Robin, saying the petitioner “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
>What we know about Minnesota school shooting suspect Robin Westman
archive.ph/nRbvY
<The suspect died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
<Driver's license information reviewed by ABC News describes Westman as a female, born on June 17, 2002.
<A name change application for a minor born on the same date was approved by a district court in Minnesota in 2020, changing the name of a Robert Westman to Robin Westman, explaining the minor child "identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification."
>Minneapolis Suspect Knew Her Target, but Motive Is a Mystery
archive.ph/cnUol
<And Ms. Westman, armed with three weapons, seemed to choose the time carefully. She barricaded the doors during the first all-school Mass of the academic year, the police said.
<In seemingly stream-of-consciousness videos that she posted, she fixated on guns, violence and school shooters. She displayed her own cache of weapons, bullets and what appear to be explosive devices, scrawled with antisemitic and racist language and threats against President Donald Trump.
<The videos also show pages from a diary, with long entries describing self hatred, violence against children, and a desire to inflict harm on herself. The diary entries are almost entirely written in English, but using Cyrillic letters. A sticker in the diary displays L.G.B.T.Q. and transgender flags with a gun and the slogan “Defend Equality.”