A school shooting during a start-of-year Mass in the US city of Minneapolis that left two children dead is being investigated as an anti-Catholic hate crime, the FBI has said.
In a statement, FBI director Kash Patel said: “The FBI is investigating this shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.
“There were 2 fatalities, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. In addition, 14 children and 3 adults were injured.
“The shooter has been identified as Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman.
“The FBI will continue to provide updates on our ongoing investigation with the public as we are able.”
Westman, who identified as transgender, applied to change his birth name from Robert to Robin in Dakota County, Minneapolis, when he was 17 years old, according to court documents reported in the US media, with the name change granted in January 2020.
The petition said that Westman “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
The transgender gunman had scrawled “Jew gas” and “for the children” on weapons used during the attack. Prior to the murder spree, Westman (23) posted a series of disturbing, now-deleted videos that showcased his manifesto along with an arsenal of weapons.
In his writings, Westman appeared to fantasise about “being that scary horrible monster standing over those powerless kids”.
In one 20-minute video, Westman turned the pages of a notebook which features a transgender pride sticker that included an AK-47 and “Defend Equality” printed across the bottom. Much of the illegible ramblings in the book appear to be in Russian or another Cyrillic language. In one entry, Westman wrote that he would probably target “Zionist Jews” if he carried out a racially motivated attack, with other remarks in the diary including “free Palestine.”
He further wrote that he “hates fascism” while musing about killing Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Westman’s notebook also included a drawing appearing to be a map of his target: the hall of the Annunciation Catholic Church.
Notes written on the weapon’s magazines read “Kill Donald Trump” and “where is your God.”
“I am feeling good about Annunciation. It seems like a good combo of easy attack form and devastating tragedy and I want to do more research,” translations of Westman’s ramblings prior to the attack by the New York Post read.
He said he had “concerns about finding a large enough group. I want to avoid any parents, but pre and post school drop off.”
It is understood that the gunman’s mother had previously worked at the school as an administrative assistant.