Kash Patel Says Minneapolis School Shooting ‘Was An Act Of Domestic Terrorism’

FBI Director Kash Patel gave an update on Thursday on the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, confirming that the trans-identifying gunman held both anti-Catholic and antisemitic views.

Patel said the information gathered by the FBI demonstrates that the shooting, where two children were killed and 17 other people were wounded, “was an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology.” Patel then provided multiple updates on the investigation.

“Subject left multiple anti-Catholic, anti-religious references both in his manifesto and written on his firearms. Subject expressed hatred and violence toward Jewish people, writing ‘Israel must fall,’ ‘Free Palestine,’ and using explicit language related to the Holocaust. He wrote an explicit call for violence against President Trump on a firearm magazine,” Patel wrote on X.

“We will employ all of our counter-terror tools to ensure this is fully investigated and deterred,” he added.

As we continue to investigate yesterday’s barbaric attack from Robert Westman, the male subject, our teams have gathered information and evidence demonstrating this was an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology.

Some updates:

-Subject left multiple…

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 28, 2025

The shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, wrote disturbing passages in journals and recorded dark videos before opening fire on students and school staff. In one YouTube video that was posted just hours before the shooting and connected to the gunman, phrases such as “Where is your God?” and “6 million wasn’t enough” — an apparent reference to the Holocaust — were written on firearms. Patel did not reveal any information on what was written in the shooter’s manifesto that the FBI believes shows anti-Catholic and antisemitic hostility.

In some of Westman’s past writings, he raged against Jews, calling them “entitled, penny-sniffing k***s,” an antisemitic slur, The New York Post reported. He also wrote, “If I will carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist jews [sic].”

Patel announced on Wednesday that the FBI was investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism and a “hate crime targeting Catholics.”

Westman, who began identifying as transgender as a teenager, also wrote in a journal that he was “tired of being trans,” adding, “I wish I never brain-washed myself,” according to the Post.

The shooting at Annunciation marks the second in two years where a trans-identifying gunman targeted a Christian school. In March 2023, a woman who identified as a man opened fire at The Covenant School in Nashville, killing three children and three adults before she was taken out by responding police officers.