An 8-year-old and 10-year-old sitting in pews were killed when a shooter opened fire through the windows of a church at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, police said.
Seventeen others were injured in the shooting during a Mass that marked the first week of school, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.
Fourteen of the injured victims were children ages 6 to 15, and the three adults who were shot were parishioners in their 80s, he said. All of those injured are expected to survive, O’Hara said.
The shooter died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, O’Hara said. The FBI identified the shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who was born Robert Westman.
Driver’s license information reviewed by ABC News described Westman as a female, born on June 17, 2002. A name change application for a minor born on the same date, June 17, 2002, was approved by a district court in Minnesota in 2020, changing the name of a Robert Westman to Robin Westman, explaining the minor child “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
Dozens of rounds fired as children, worshippers sat in pews
The mass shooting unfolded just before 8:30 a.m. when the shooter approached the side of the building and fired a rifle through the church windows toward the children and other worshippers sitting in the pews, O’Hara said.
Dozens of rounds were fired, the chief said, and he called it a “deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping.”
“Within seconds” of the gunfire, the “heroic staff moved students under the pews,” the Annunciation Parish and School said in a statement. The students and staff were evacuated “in a matter of minutes when it was safe to do so,” the school said.
The suspect was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, and police believe shots were fired from all three weapons, the chief said. All three weapons were purchased legally and recently, police said.
A possible smoke bomb was also discovered at the crime scene, the chief said.
FBI investigating as act of domestic terrorism
Police said they believe the shooter acted alone.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI is investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics, but police said a motive is not known.
“We are looking at, obviously, any possibilities,” police said.
Law enforcement is investigating social media accounts believed to be associated with the shooter, specifically a video posted earlier Wednesday on YouTube, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The video shows someone flipping through dozens of pages of notes, which include what appears to be drawings of weapons and one drawing depicting the inside of a church with pews.
5th-grader describes moments shots rang out
Students in pre-K to eighth grade attend the school. Young children wearing their uniforms were seen leaving the school holding their parents’ hands.
Weston, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at the school, said he was sitting next to a stained glass window the shooter fired through.
“It was right beside me. I was like 2 feet away from the stained glass window. So, the shots were right next to me,” Weston told Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP.
The boy said he and his classmates immediately hid under a pew as the gunfire continued.
“My friend got hit in the back. He went to the hospital,” said Weston, who spoke to KSTP with the permission of his grandfather. “I was super scared for him, but I think he’s OK.”
He said he and his classmates were taken to the school gym, where they waited for the news of what had just occurred.
Weston said his mother was outside the church when the shooting erupted, and was the first person he saw when he emerged from the church.
