Minneapolis School Shooter Had ‘Manifesto’ that Addressed Motive

Robin Westman, whom authorities identified as the perpetrator of a Minneapolis Catholic school shooting that killed two children, left a manifesto and reportedly had praised Adolf Hitler when he was younger.

Westman, 23, opened fire at Annunciation Catholic School and church on the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 27, Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara said. Two children, aged 8 and 10, were killed, while 17 people — including 14 children — were wounded.

The shooter died by suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, having been armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol during the shooting.

According to O’Hara, Westman had timed the release of a YouTube manifesto to coincide with the shooting. Westman’s apparent YouTube channel has since been removed from the platform but is being reviewed by law enforcement.

CNN, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the channel thought to have been Westman’s featured videos of a person flipping through a notebook as well as several firearms with racial and antisemitic slurs written on them — including “6 million wasn’t enough,” a reference to the Holocaust.

The outlet further reported that a different gun magazine had the names of several other mass shooters, including Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

CNN also cited the notebook, which apparently featured entries in which the author said he was “morbidly obsessed” with Lanza. The notebook was reportedly written in both English and English with Cyrillic characters, with some Russian words mixed in.

The notebook also contained a hand-drawn diagram of the Annunciation Church, CNN reported. The outlet also reported that Westman graduated from the school, which teaches students from kindergarten through eighth grade, in 2017.

“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 notebook said, according to CNN. “I don’t want to do it to spread a message. I do it to please myself. I do it because I am sick.”

Local outlet KSTP interviewed a woman who said she was a former classmate and brief friend of Westman in grade school in St. Paul.

“I knew that something was off, but I was a kid; how was I to know what to do?” Josefina Sanchez told the outlet. “…[Westman] would put up his hand and praise Hitler.”

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KARE 11 reported that Westman’s mother worked at Annunciation until her retirement in 2021.

O’Hara said Westman opened fire from outside the church, striking both students and worshippers. The 17 people who were wounded are expected to survive, the chief said.