Investigators are digging into the background of the Minneapolis Catholic school shooter as they work to determine a motive for Wednesday’s attack that left two children dead and injured more than a dozen others.
Authorities say the shooter left behind extensive writings and visual materials that may provide insight into the planning and mindset behind the attack.
Gunman identified
Authorities identified the shooter as Robin Westman.
According to investigators, Westman was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a handgun — all purchased legally. Police said Westman died by suicide after carrying out the attack.
Court records show Westman was born Robert Westman and legally changed their name in 2020 when they were about age 17. The name-change request included written consent from Westman's mother.
Authorities said Westman had no known violent criminal history. Their only prior legal encounters were misdemeanor traffic cases for speeding and driving without proof of insurance.
Police release heavily-redacted 'mental health' report
Police in Eagan, Minnesota, where the shooting suspect once lived, released a heavily-redacted "mental health" report to Scripps News in response to a public records request for all reports involving the gunman.
The report, dated January 2018, says police assisted another agency with "a check welfare of a juvenile." The description of the call is "mental health."
While all information about the subject of the report is redacted, it lists Westman's parents under the heading "parent data." The narrative of the report is redacted but concludes with a note from police that "There will be no further follow up. Case status is closed."
Journal and drawings
Officials recovered a lengthy video and dozens of written pages. While much of the writing appears in Russian script, experts found much of it uses the Russian alphabet to spell English words rather than standard Russian.
The cover of one notebook read “make your life better” and included two images — one showing the church layout, and another with Russian-letter text that translated into English phrases such as:
“Who am I? When will it end? Help me. I don’t want to. Kill me. Kill me. Help.”
Alongside the text was a drawing of a figure with a weapon on their back, looking into a mirror — the reflection showing what appears to be a beast with horns.
Writings on weapons
Authorities also found cryptic and hateful messages on several weapons. These included racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian statements, as well as references to other mass shootings.
Investigators say the shooter’s writings indicate careful planning over an extended period. In these pages, the shooter apologized to family members, expressed belief they had cancer, described years of depression and suicidal thoughts, and acknowledged that the attack would disrupt lives forever.
Expert analysis
Cases like this often involve isolated individuals radicalized online, said Jillian Peterson, a criminology professor at Hamline University.
“They are men, young men, often in their early 20s,” Peterson told Scripps News. “They are isolated, alone, hopeless, often times delusional. They spend time studying other shooters and getting radicalized online. They’re actively suicidal and they designed this to be their final act. And they leave behind — we call them — legacy tokens, something like a video or a diary meant to go viral. And they target a place, either someplace that they blame for kind of their misery. Or in the cases of elementary schools, they’re often targeted because of the headlines that they generate. There’s this narcissism to this, where they want their message to go viral and they want to force us all to listen to it."
Ongoing investigation
Police have not publicly identified a definitive motive or confirmed a connection between the shooter and the school. Investigators have also stopped short of confirming reports that the suspect’s mother may have worked there at one time.
Scripps News has learned that four search warrants are being executed, including one at the shooting site and three at homes in the Minneapolis area linked to the gunman. Authorities said they are working to recover weapons from those locations and expect to release more information as the investigation progresses.
