At least two children are dead and 17 people injured after a demonic transgender gunman opened fire on Catholic school kids in Minneapolis early Wednesday — barricading the doors and unleashing hell as students were praying during a back-to-school Mass.
Robin Westman — wielding a rifle, shotgun and pistol — approached the side of the Annunciation Catholic Church and started firing through the stained-glass windows, striking the scores of children praying in the pews just before 8:30 a.m., police and officials said.
Two kids, ages 8 and 10, were killed. Fourteen students were injured. The three adult victims were all parishioners in their 80s who were also attending the Mass.
All of the wounded victims are expected to survive, officials said later Wednesday.
The lone 23-year-old gunman, who identified as a transgender woman, espoused vile antisemitism and a desire to murder President Trump and Elon Musk in a deranged manifesto timed to post on YouTube to coincide with the massacre, police said.
In his screed, he specifically mused about committing a mass murder at an event at Annunciation, evilly relishing the thought of “being that scary horrible monster standing over those powerless kids.”
Westman propped a wooden plank against some of the church’s side doors in an apparent attempt to trap the students and staff inside the sanctuary as he fired shots from all three guns.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said, who later noted Westman’s weapons were all purchased legally and recently.
Westman – who attended Annunciation as a child and whose mother, Mary Grace, was a former secretary at the school – was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the vicious assault.
Here is the latest on the mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school:
- Minneapolis Catholic school shooter ID’d as trans woman Robin Westman— while possible manifesto shows psychotic obsession with mass shooters
- Mom of Minneapolis mass shooter Robin Westman worked at Catholic school where he opened fire, killing 2 kids: police
- Minneapolis shooting live updates: 5th grader recounts terrifying moment hero classmate was shot — while shielding him
- Minneapolis gunman kills 2 Catholic school kids, wounds 14 after barricading doors as they prayed in back-to-school Mass
Fifth-grade Annunciation student Weston Halsne told NBC News his friend Victor was shot while attempting to shield him from bullets during the Mass.
The young survivor said he hid under a pew when the shooting started — just as he’d learned in active shooter drills at the school.
At least six children were treated at Children’s Minnesota Hospital — a pediatric trauma hospital, according to officials. Hennepin Healthcare, which has Minnesota’s largest emergency department, said it had received 11 patients.
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An emotional Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said of the victims and their families, “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church,” he continued.
“They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear of violence.”
Authorities haven’t yet determined a motive for the bloodshed but investigators are currently reviewing the disturbing manifesto and videos that revealed the gunman’s psychotic obsession with mass shooters.
Westman’s sick 20-minute YouTube manifesto is filmed POV-style showing a hand turning pages of a red notebook laid out on top of what appears to be schematic gun diagrams.
The sloppy scrawl, written almost entirely in Cyrillic, confessed a love of violence and a lifelong obsession with mass shooters — including Sandy Hook killer Adam Lanza — as well as the chilling acknowledgement, “I have had thoughts about mass murder for a long time.”
Officials have said the shooter was not known to have a criminal history.
At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Frey scolded people he claims were “villainizing our trans community” in the wake of the mass shooting, accusing them of having “lost their sense of common humanity.”
The school, which is located next door to the church, is for kindergarten through eighth-graders.
Students, who had only just returned to class on Monday, were attending an all-school Mass in the nearby church at the time.
The FBI said it was investigating the slaughter as domestic terrorism and a possible hate crime against Catholics.
In a heart-wrenching statement Wednesday afternoon, Church of the Annunciation said it was “navigating an impossible situation,” and thanked law enforcement and the community for their support, urging prayers for the students who were still hospitalized.
Pope Leo XIV offered “heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness” to those affected by the “terrible tragedy” in Minneapolis, expressing sympathy in particular to “the families now grieving the loss of a child.”
Scores of local and state police, federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and other authorities descended on the scene after the shooting broke out.
Bill Bienemann, who lives just a few blocks away and has long attended Mass at Annunciation Church, recalled hearing dozens of shots over several minutes.
“I was shocked. I said, ‘There’s no way that could be gunfire,’” he said. “There was so much of it. It was sporadic.”
A reunification zone was set up near the school, where terrified parents arrived and tearfully shouted for their children.
Parents could be seen escorting sobbing students from the school in the aftermath.
President Trump and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were among those briefed on the shooting early on.
“Please join me in praying for everyone involved!” Trump said on social media.
In his own post, Walz said: “I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence.”
The church welcomes all-comers with a simple message above the entrance, and the words were still visible from behind the police cordon following the shooting: “This is the house of God and the gate of Heaven.”
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