Minneapolis
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As a young person, Robin Westman claimed to have been suspended after discussing college shootings with classmates – later writing in a journal that the incident was the origin of a deep obsession with mass shooters.
A decade later, Westman returned to Annunciation Catholic School and carried out these darkish fantasies, killing two kids at a Mass on Wednesday morning and injuring 18 different folks.
As Minneapolis reels from the taking pictures, officers are combing by way of Westman’s rambling writings – which the shooter shared in YouTube videos timed to go surfing across the similar time because the assault – to seek for a motive.
A NCS assessment of dozens of these pages – most written in Cyrillic letters to masks the disturbing content material – raises questions on whether or not folks in Westman’s life missed warning signs that might have prevented Westman from buying the array of firearms used within the killings.
Even as Westman rigorously plotted out the assault, writing as lately as final week about visiting the church, diagramming the inside and testing out weapons, the shooter additionally hinted at a need to be caught. After describing a member of the family who had remarked on “dark energy” surrounding Westman, the shooter wrote: “FIND ME I AM BEGGING FOR HELP, I AM SCREAMING FOR HELP.”
Authorities confirmed to NCS on Thursday that Westman had lately visited Annunciation’s church, pretending to be taken with reconnecting with the Catholic religion. In the journal, Westman describes taking a look at door handles, calculating how one can greatest lock victims inside, and noting the place academics had been positioned.
While police have described the writings as a “manifesto,” NCS’s assessment discovered that the hand-written entries are much less a coherent assertion of objective or political declaration and extra a jumbled, stream-of-consciousness window into the shooter’s troubled state of thoughts.
“This is not a church or religion attack, that is not the message,” Westman wrote. “The message is there is no message.”
The journal entries present a disturbing and intensive take a look at Westman’s non-public ideas. The shooter described working to keep away from detection, writing the entries in Cyrillic script as a “cypher” in case somebody discovered the pocket book.
“I really just want a place to put my thoughts,” Westman defined. “I can’t talk to a therapist or family cause I will immediately be reported and put on a watchlist!”
Westman had suffered from despair and confronted suicidal and homicidal ideas for years, in keeping with the journal.
“I have a loving family and a good support system of people that want to see me thrive,” Westman wrote. “For some reason, the fact that I have a pretty good life and the fact that I want kill people have never correlated to me.”
“Every school I went to, I have some fantasy at some point or another of shooting up my school,” Westman added. “Even every job.”
That began with the incident in seventh grade, Westman wrote. It’s unclear what college Westman attended on the time – one former classmate told local news station KSTP that the longer term shooter attended seventh grade at a college in Saint Paul, and recalled disturbing habits, together with Westman praising Hitler.
At the time, in keeping with a journal entry, Westman requested a woman, “if there was a school shooting, where would you hide?” But after the coed instructed adults, Westman was suspended from college for every week, the journal says.
“I basically promised I didn’t mean anything,” Westman wrote, including, “I don’t remember ever talking to a therapist.”
Four classmates who attended Annunciation Catholic School with Westman in eighth grade instructed NCS that they didn’t bear in mind the longer term shooter saying something violent or having any disciplinary issues at the moment. Westman would have attended Wednesday Mass with different college students on the college, they mentioned.
Westman was “different” for an eighth grader, former classmate Mason Wille mentioned, “but I didn’t think anything of it,” including that Westman appeared to get together with all people.
Hearing the information that Westman was suspected because the Annunciation shooter was a shock, Wille mentioned. “I would have never seen this coming.”
Nathan Bergstrom, one other former classmate, mentioned he vaguely remembered Westman “would get mad sometimes, maybe more angry than a normal student would,” however no main incidents. At the time, Westman caught out for occasionally sporting Heelys – sneakers with a wheel on the underside – Bergstrom mentioned.
A fifth former classmate, who requested to not be named because of the sensitivity of the state of affairs, mentioned she did bear in mind Annunciation taking disciplinary motion in opposition to Westman at one level, however she didn’t know details about what occurred.
“There was some drama around it,” she mentioned. “The students and parents never really found out what it was.”
Several former classmates remembered Westman incessantly carrying round a pocket book – and one of the previous college students mentioned she acknowledged Westman’s handwriting within the movies posted on-line.
After graduating from Annunciation’s grade college in 2017, Westman attended not less than two Minneapolis excessive faculties, together with an all-boys non-public military-style prep college. It’s unclear if Westman graduated from any highschool.
In 2019, Westman’s mom filed to legally change the shooter’s title from Robert Paul Westman to Robin M. Westman, court docket paperwork present. A decide who accredited the petition in January 2020 wrote that Westman “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
Westman had no previous felony report, in keeping with police and court docket information.
The journal consists of discussions of different mass shooters, and darkish fantasies about Westman reveling in killing kids and following within the footsteps of murderers like Adam Lanza, who gunned down 26 folks – together with 20 kids – at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.
The entries are additionally full of racist and antisemitic slurs and sentiments.
Earlier this 12 months, even whereas indulging in fantasies about mass violence, Westman described deciding to not perform an assault to spare members of the family the ache. But that modified in current months. In a more moderen entry, Westman wrote, “I don’t want to f**king do this I hate myself. I cannot turn back. I cannot stop myself.”
Westman zeroed in on Annunciation – and particularly the all-school mass on Wednesday – after discovering an internet college schedule, the journal reveals. The subsequent month, Westman described making a trial run by going to Mass within the morning and testing doorways.
At one level, Westman expressed shock that members of the family didn’t count on the approaching violence.
“I feel like my mom would have seen it coming due to my rocky past with violent threats,” the journal states. “The other day my stepmom… said she could feel a ‘dark energy’ around me… if only you know!”
Westman’s household haven’t responded to requests for remark from NCS.
Police are nonetheless investigating the place Westman obtained the weapons used within the assault, which authorities mentioned included a rifle, a handgun and a shotgun. One of the YouTube movies posted the day of the assault confirmed antisemitic and racist slurs painted on an array of weapons.
In the journal, Westman mentions a plan to attempt to purchase a rifle from an acquaintance, and likewise opines on the way it “should be harder for people like me to carry out these attacks.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara mentioned at a press convention Thursday that authorities usually are not conscious of Westman having any prior psychological well being analysis or psychological well being commitments, which may have prevented Westman from buying firearms.
The journal entries continued as much as simply days earlier than the taking pictures. In one entry dated final week, Westman wrote about plans to go to a taking pictures vary, and described visiting Annunciation to “scout one last time.”
Pages later, Westman scrawled a diagram of the within of the church – with pews, home windows and aisles clearly marked – earlier than stabbing the drawing on digital camera with a knife.
“Went to church this morning,” Westman wrote, including that the academics “will not be expecting an attack in the very first week of school.”
NCS’s Yahya Abou-Ghazala, Thomas Bordeaux, and Arit John contributed reporting.