Minneapolis Church Shooter Linked to Former GOP Lawmaker
The shooter responsible for a deadly attack during a Catholic school Mass in Minneapolis on Wednesday has been identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, a biological male who previously went by Robert Westman. The gunman opened fire at Assumption Church, killing two children and injuring 17 others, many of them students. Survivors described harrowing scenes, with some children hiding under the bodies of their classmates to stay alive.
Authorities revealed that Westman’s mother formerly worked as a secretary at the Catholic K–8 school connected to the church. In a shocking twist, Westman is also the nephew of Bob Heleringer, a former Republican lawmaker from Kentucky. Heleringer expressed his devastation in a statement to the Associated Press, saying he wished Westman had “shot me instead of innocent schoolchildren.”
Law enforcement officials are treating the massacre as both a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism. FBI Director Kash Patel stated that Westman’s weapons were marked with anti-Trump and anti-religious messages. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooter, dressed in black and armed with a pistol, shotgun, and rifle, stalked the church pews in search of children as young as six.
Just hours before the attack, Westman reportedly posted a chilling 20-minute video online. In it, he shared a handwritten manifesto coded with Cyrillic characters and English phonetics. He fantasized about becoming a “scary horrible monster” and expressed admiration for the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. He also outlined plans to target the church where he graduated in 2017.
Heleringer, who had supported legislation banning gender treatments for minors, said he hadn’t seen Westman in years. The shooter’s background and disturbing writings have reignited national debate over transgender mental health, school safety, and gun laws.
