A gunman armed with multiple weapons opened fire outside a Minneapolis church during a school mass on Wednesday, killing two children and wounding 17 others before turning the gun on himself, authorities said.
Police identified the shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who carried a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol when he unleashed a barrage of gunfire through the stained-glass windows of the Annunciation Catholic School church just after 8 a.m.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, visibly shaken, condemned the assailant in sharp terms. “A coward,” O’Hara said, describing Westman’s assault on children seated in the pews. Among the dead were two students, ages 8 and 10. Fourteen of the wounded were also children, officials said.
Witnesses described a terrifying scene as the shooter riddled the church with bullets. One parent attending the service told the Star Tribune that the attacker “just pepper-sprayed bullets through the stained-glass windows into the building, 50 to 100 shots.” The parent, who watched in horror as children were struck, called the killings “terrible” and “evil.” He added, “I don’t know how you defend against this.”
Police said the shooter’s fatal wound was self-inflicted. By 9:30 a.m., the city of Minneapolis announced on X that there was “no active threat to the community at this time.”
🚨 BREAKING: The trans shooter at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis was previously a STUDENT of the school, law enforcement sources tell WaPo
His mother, Mary Westman, also worked there
Seems to be a COPYCAT of the trans who shot up the Covenant School in Nashville pic.twitter.com/wAESPQUv1D
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 27, 2025
🚨 BREAKING: The FBI is investigating the Minneapolis Catholic School shooting as an “act of domestic terrorism” and a “hate crime TARGETING CATHOLICS,” per @FBIDirectorKash
The FBI is calling this what it is: TERRORISM AGAINST CATHOLICS! pic.twitter.com/4yY9Q9aByg
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 27, 2025
The attack, which struck a Catholic school in session just three days into the academic year, sent shockwaves through the city and beyond. It also raised disturbing questions about the shooter’s motivations and ideology.
Law enforcement officials revealed that Westman left behind a manifesto and scrawled hateful, extremist slogans on his weapons and ammunition. His arsenal bore anti-Semitic phrases such as “Israel must fall,” “Burn Israel,” and “6 million wasn’t enough,” a direct reference to the Holocaust. Other messages expressed violent threats against former President Donald Trump, including “Kill Trump Now!” and “Kill Donald Trump RIP & TEAR.” One weapon carried the phrase “Thank God for Breivik,” invoking Anders Behring Breivik, the neo-Nazi who murdered more than 70 people in Norway in 2011.
The combination of anti-Semitic and anti-Trump rhetoric painted a chilling portrait of an attacker animated by radical hatred. For many, the episode underscored the dangers of ideological extremism in America’s cities.
While Chief O’Hara and other officials focused on the immediate aftermath of the killings, parents and community members voiced anger at the broader environment that could produce such an assault on schoolchildren.
The writings left behind by Westman, some said, pointed to a toxic blend of hatred that too often festers unchecked.
The killings of the two children have now become a flashpoint in Minneapolis, a city already grappling with concerns about crime and violence.
For conservatives and many parents, the attack represented not only an unspeakable tragedy but also a wake-up call about the consequences of ignoring extremism when it festers in plain sight.
“This is terrible. This is evil,” the parent who survived the shooting said, his words capturing both the grief and the outrage left behind in the wake of the attack.
[READ MORE: Trump Calls for Death Penalty in D.C. Murders as Part of Crime Crackdown]
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