A “manifesto” believed to belong to the sole suspect in the horrifying Minneapolis Catholic school shooting earlier this week has shed light on the preparation that went into the depraved act.
23-year-old Robin Westman has been identified as the perpetrator who fired through church windows at around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, just as pupils were celebrating Mass at the beginning of the academic year.
Two children, an eight-year-old and ten-year-old, were killed in the pews of the church. 17 others, comprising of 14 children and three parishioners aged over 80, were injured.
Speaking outside Hennepin Healthcare, Dr. Thomas Wyatt described how hospital staff sprang into action after being alerted to a “mass casualty situation.”
Seven patients arrived in critical condition, four needing immediate surgery. Of the 11 treated, nine were children between six and 14 years old.
The suspect, Westman, had attended the school for at least a year and was seen there in the days leading up to the school year. Westman’s mother had previously worked at the school until her retirement in 2021.
Court documents show that Westman, then 17, filed to change their name in 2020, identifying “as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed Wednesday that Robin Westman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He also revealed that investigators are scouring through a video “manifesto” posted to YouTube to “try and develop a motive.”
According to an analysis by BBC Verify, Westman – seen flipping through the pages of a journal written in Cyrillic letters – weighed when and where it might be best to attack “a large group of kids”. He went on to express a desire to “catch a big assembly on the first day of school”, while avoiding parents as they could be armed themselves.
As per The Independent, O’Hara added that some of the 17 victims from the shooting remain in critical condition. He described a “wide range” of injuries, from superficial graze wounds to life-threatening gunshot wounds.
He told the Today Show this morning that “all of the victims are expected to survive.”
Our prayers and thoughts go out to those affected by this unspeakable tragedy.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org, to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
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