Police are investigating on-line movies apparently posted by the shooter who killed two kids and injured 17 different individuals at a Catholic church in Minneapolis on Wednesday, which describe an obsession with faculty shootings and present a rambling written assertion and quite a few weapons painted with slurs, mass killers’ names and political messages.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara recognized the suspected shooter as Robin Westman, who died from a self-inflicted wound after firing into Annunciation Catholic Church throughout a morning Mass. Westman, 23, graduated from Annunciation’s grade faculty in 2017, in accordance to a yearbook photograph obtained by NCS.
Authorities at the moment are evaluating a collection of weird movies posted to YouTube by a person recognized as “Robin W” to authenticate them and doubtlessly study extra concerning the motivations within the assault, police sources instructed NCS. The movies, which have been taken down, have been uploaded on Wednesday.
O’Hara mentioned at a press convention Wednesday afternoon that the shooter had posted a “manifesto” that was timed to be revealed on YouTube, and that investigators are going by it to “try and develop a motive from that.”
In the movies, two which have been titled with Westman’s full identify, the particular person recording the video pages by a handwritten pocket book and shows a shooting goal with a picture of Jesus and a group of weapons, magazines and ammunition laid out on a mattress. Various messages and racial and spiritual slurs have been written on the weapons, together with “psycho killer” and “suck on this!” Antisemitic messages have been additionally scrawled on the weapons, with one studying “6 million wasn’t enough.” Another journal had the message, “kill Donald Trump.”
In a voiceover of 1 video, the particular person filming additionally claimed to have met and to assist Brandon Herrera, a pro-gun YouTuber who misplaced a Republican major for a Texas congressional seat final yr. Herrera condemned the assault in a social media message posted Wednesday afternoon, saying the shooter would “burn in hell.”
Another of the gun magazines proven within the movies lists the names of six infamous mass shooters, together with Adam Lanza, whom the suspect wrote that they had a “deep fascination” for. Lanza gunned down 26 individuals – together with 20 kids – at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012. The identify of Robert Bowers, who was convicted of killing 11 individuals at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, can also be legible on the aspect of one of many weapons.
The rambling pocket book – which was written partially in English and partially utilizing English phrases in Cyrillic script with some Russian phrases – expresses emotions of self-hatred and desires to die. Other entries described the writer changing into “morbidly obsessed” at a younger age with Lanza and different previous faculty shooters.
“I’m so sorry” is written in giant letters on one web page. The particular person filming whispered “I love my family” whereas recording that web page, and mentioned “I don’t know what else to say” at one other level within the video.
The pocket book additionally included a diagram of the within of a church that appears to match the format of Annunciation Church. The particular person recording confirmed themselves stabbing a knife into the drawing whereas saying, “ha, nice.”
The writings within the pocket book, together with photographs on the weapons, specific a large embrace of racism and antisemitic views – though the writer claims these extremist concepts aren’t expressly the explanation behind Wednesday’s assault.
“In regards to my motivation behind the attack I can’t really put my finger on a specific purpose. It definitely wouldn’t be for racism or white supremacy,” the pocket book reads. “I don’t want to do it to spread a message. I do it to please myself. I do it because I am sick.”
Cody Zoschak, a senior supervisor on the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a analysis group that tracks extremism on-line, instructed NCS that the movies appeared comparable to writings revealed by Solomon Henderson, who fatally shot a fellow scholar and injured one different particular person earlier than killing himself at a Nashville highschool earlier this yr.
“He was associated with similar online subcultures and nihilistic violence, he had a very confusing mix of materials in his manifesto, and generally we saw a lot of efforts to misdirect and or troll,” Zoschak mentioned.
The suspect’s final identified tackle was at Westman’s father’s dwelling a few 20-minute stroll from Annunciation, on a quiet block of craftsman bungalows.
The elder Westman and a girl have been seen by a number of neighbors sitting on the curb on Wednesday, trying stricken as regulation enforcement officers from varied companies went by their home.
Jim White, 57, who lives throughout the road, described them as a pleasant couple who, once they realized White was engaged on a landscaping challenge, gave him lots of of cement blocks to create a planter that now adorns his entrance garden.
“They are very nice neighbors, very good people,” he mentioned.
Neighbor Terry Cole mentioned he didn’t bear in mind seeing the suspected shooter typically within the neighborhood. Cole briefly choked up whereas talking with a NCS reporter.
“They are a wonderful couple — a good part of this neighborhood,” he mentioned. “People take care of each other here. It’s just such an absolute shock.”
The suspected shooter’s mom labored at Annunciation from 2016 by 2021, in accordance to social media posts.
Westman attended the Minnesota Transitions Charter School for 2 months at first of the 2017 faculty yr, after graduating from Annunciation, a spokesperson for the constitution faculty confirmed, but it surely’s unclear whether or not the suspect graduated from highschool.
In 2019, the suspect’s mom filed to legally change the suspect’s identify from Robert Paul Westman to Robin M. Westman, court docket paperwork present. A decide who authorised the petition in January 2020 wrote that the suspect “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
A search of state court docket data confirmed no legal historical past for Westman, however some site visitors citations in 2021.
NCS’s Isabelle Chapman, Curt Devine and Nina Subkhanberdina contributed reporting.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was up to date with further particulars on the suspect.