What We Know About The Trans-Identifying Gunman Who Slaughtered Catholic School Children

The following article includes graphic language and images posted by the man identified by authorities as the suspect in a Minneapolis, Minnesota attack on a Catholic school. 

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The man who shot and killed two Catholic children and injured 17 other people at a Minneapolis Catholic school has been identified by authorities as “Robin Westman,” a transgender-identifying 23-year-old who posted radical videos in the hour before his attack.

This individual identified as a woman and changed his name from Robert Westman to Robin Westman in 2020, as The Washington Free Beacon’s Peter Hassan reported. Court filings show that Westman’s mother signed off on the name change, since her son was a minor, and the documents state that Westman “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”

On Wednesday morning, around 8:30 am, Westman fired through the windows of the Annunciation Catholic School’s church in Minneapolis as students attended daily mass on their first day of school. He killed two children, ages 8 and 10, injuring 17 others before he shot himself in the parking lot, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – AUGUST 27: Police work the scene following a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School on August 27, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Video footage obtained by The Daily Wire shows that YouTube user “Robin W” posted a disturbing video on Wednesday morning with the caption, “so long and thanks for all the fish.” That video shows an individual thumbing through a notebook filled with Russian and English journal entries, as well as pictures of guns, diagrams of his attacks, and a transgender “defend equality” flag sticker.

Throughout the video, he mutters, whispers, and giggles in a disturbing fashion.

As the video concludes, Westman appears to thumb through the pages of his notebook as he whispers, “I can’t deal with this anymore … I can’t do this anymore … I have to go, I have to go…”

Here’s part of the chilling video that “Robin W” posted this morning, before it was removed by YouTube, obtained by @realDailyWire. Warning, this is disturbing.

In it, he thumbs through the pages of his notebook as he whispers, “I can’t deal with this anymore…I can’t do this… pic.twitter.com/ax3g5jPzjR

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) August 27, 2025

He pans with the camera to a page in his notebook where it’s written in big English scrawl, “Sick fuck, sick fuck, murderer hahahahaha villain,” as he whispers aloud, “Oh my God,” and gives a middle finger to the page, before grabbing what appears to be a pistol off his desk and pressing it into the page of the book.

He then whimpers and mutters twice in a whisper, “My family. My family,” as he pans to a page that concludes, “The End,” and says, “I’m so sorry.”

He shows his room, whispering, “I’m all packed up … I don’t know what else to say. It’s over. It’s over. It’s all over.” He then mutters something about whether he will make it “to tomorrow,” before whispering, “Pray for me, I love you all.”

This was just one of many disturbing moments in the videos posted to the account, which YouTube removed on Wednesday afternoon with the help of the FBI, O’Hara confirmed. YouTube has not responded to requests for comment from The Daily Wire.

The New York Post’s Diana Glebova translated the journal and found that Westman repeatedly discussed his hated for Jews as well.

“If I will carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist jews,” he wrote in one entry, according to the New York Post, adding in another entry: “I hate those entitled, penny-sniffing k-kes,” and in another, “6 million wasn’t enough,” referring to the number of Jewish Holocaust victims. He also wrote a message about destroying “HIAS,” a Jewish refugee aid group, and one of his guns read, “Israel must fall, release the files.”

Westman also wrote about assassinating President Donald Trump as well as the Jews. But the deceased shooter reflected that killing “children of innocent civilians” would give him “the most joy.”

“For good would be a target or political or societal significance. Targets like Musk, Trump or some significant exec,” he wrote, adding in another entry:  “I can’t really put my finger on a specific purpose. It definitely won’t be for racism or white supremacy.”

“While I don’t really like being around people of color, I don’t give enough of a shit about them to take my life for them,” he wrote, according to the New York Post.

Westman also wrote that he had been suicidal for a number of years. He wrote of his shooting plans:  “I don’t want to [do] it to spread a message. I do it to please myself. I do it because I am sick…I don’t think I could just take myself out. I would need to do something with my final act.”

Other videos on the YouTube page examined by The Daily Wire show that “Robin W” had an obsession with shooters, including the Sandy Hook shooter who killed 20 children and six school staffers before killing himself. He also drew a sketch of the Annunciation Church.

RELATED: Minnesota Catholic School Leader Warned Tim Walz Of ‘Critical’ School Safety Threats. He Did Nothing.

On Wednesday afternoon, FBI Director Kash Patel shared that 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,” he said. “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.”

A YouTube account under that name posted 2 disturbing videos this am that included threats against Trump, a magazine titled “I’m the woker baby, why so queerious?” a sketch of a church, and a picture of Christ on a paper target https://t.co/kX9FblyaZ2 pic.twitter.com/AQTpp75DpS

— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) August 27, 2025

Westman was carrying a rifle, shotgun, and pistol, and killed himself after firing “dozens of rounds” at innocent children, according to O’Hara. Police believe the shooter fired all three weapons, and said that he barricaded the students and staff in the church by placing a wooden plank against some of the side doors, in an attempt to prevent them from fleeing.

One adult and six children are in critical condition, according to the Hennepin County Medical Center, although Chief O’Hara said the children wounded in the shooting were all expected to survive.

The Minnesota shooter, Robin Westman: pic.twitter.com/El1T8T86WE

— Karol Markowicz (@karol) August 27, 2025

Westman is the second trans-identifying killer to target school children in recent years. A trans-identifying shooter killed three children and three adults at Covenant Christian School in Nashville in March 2023.

President Joe Biden’s FBI would claim that it withheld the shooter’s 100-page journal in the name of public safety, suggesting that the manifesto would lead to “conspiracy theories” and “inaccurate information.” The Tennessee Star published the shooter’s entire journal, and the writings revealed that the shooter was obsessed with ideas of transgenderism and white privilege, and frequently wrote about her autism and depression.