A shooting at a school in Minneapolis that left two children dead and 17 others injured is being investigated as an anti-Catholic hate crime, according to the FBI. The two children, aged 8 and 10, were killed when an attacker opened fire through the windows of the city’s Annunciation Church on Wednesday morning as children were celebrating Mass. The attacker, who died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was later named by police as 23-year-old Robin Westman.
“The FBI is investigating this shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X.
Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope, was among those who paid tribute to the young victims, saying he was “profoundly saddened” by the attack.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters: “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”..
Police found a note that Westman scheduled to publish online at the time of the shooting. Investigators have since deleted the post.
Westman’s name was legally changed from Robert to Robin in 2020, Minnesota court records show. In the application the judge wrote: “Minor child identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pushed back against hatred directed towards the transgender community in the wake of the attack.
Authorities have not yet released a suspected motive for the attack.
