A trans-identifying gunman who shot up a Catholic school’s church this week blamed transgenderism, weed, and his mother’s disapproval for his mental illness, according to newly uncovered writings.
Robin Westman, who legally changed his name from Robert in 2020 after he began identifying as female, said the way his mother handled his transgender identity made him want to kill people, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/08/29/us-news/minneapolis-gunman-robin-westman-blamed-massacre-on-mom-warning-him-not-to-change-gender-and-discouraged-people-from-letting-their-kids-transition/">New York Post</a>, which translated Westman’s writings from a mixture of Cyrillic characters and English phonetic words. Westman wrote about his transgender identity, weed use, and his mother in a journal entry dated July 1.
“Your words, mother, made me stay in my discomfort unable to ask for help to avoid admitting defeat. You were right mama, but the way you handled it led me to wanting to kill so so many people,” Westman wrote.
“When I was first out to my mother, she was VERY antagonistic. She really made me hate myself and think I will never be good enough,” he wrote. “I remember one day, she said something like, ‘In the future you will look back and feel ridiculous about who you feel like you are inside. You will regret this.’&#8221;
“Well guess what mom?! I regret being born,” he said.
He blamed transgenderism and constant weed use for severe mental illness, and he expressed regret for his adoption of both.
“Gender and weed f***ed up my head,” Westman wrote. “I wish I never tried experimenting with either. Don’t let your kids smoke weed or change gender until they are like seventeen.”
Westman, 23, targeted the church at Annunciation Catholic School on Wednesday morning, firing through the church’s windows from a parking lot while students from the school attended mass. Westman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bright-joyful-and-deeply-loved-parents-mourn-children-killed-in-catholic-school-attack">killed</a> two students, 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski, and wounded 18 others. The shooter died after turning his gun on himself.
The gunman left behind numerous writings, videos, and other communications that include deeply troubling and hateful thoughts and intentions. Westman directed strong feelings at Christians, Jews, and President Donald Trump, but also at himself and his transgender identity.
“I only keep [long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,” Westman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wish-i-never-brain-washed-myself-minnesota-school-shooter-said-he-was-tired-of-being-trans">wrote</a>.
“I can’t cut my hair now as it would be [an] embarrassing defeat, and it might be a concerning change of character that could get me reported,” he added. “It just always gets in my way. I will probably chop it on the day of the attack.”
Westman changed his name from Robert to Robin in 2020 at the age of 17. His mother, Mary Grace Westman, signed the official papers.

Annunciation Catholic Church

More Of Minnesota Shooter’s Writings Uncovered: ‘Gender And Weed F***ed Up My Head’

Annunciation Catholic School

Crime

Minnesota

School Shooting

Transgender

U.S.

Medical organizations that have backed irreversible transgender procedures on kids are facing pressure after a transgender-identifying man murdered two children and injured 18 others at a Catholic school in Minnesota on Wednesday.
The shooter who attacked the school was identified as “Robin” Westman, a 23-year-old man who started identifying as female as a minor. Westman, who previously went by Robert, left behind a series of writings that described his regret in identifying as transgender, exhibited a hatred of Christians and Jews, and a desire to kill young kids. He killed himself after spraying bullets into a group of students gathered for a Mass.
Portions of Westman’s journal, which were scribbled in a mix of Russian Cyrillic script and English, were translated by the New York Post and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wish-i-never-brain-washed-myself-minnesota-school-shooter-said-he-was-tired-of-being-trans?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=4&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=‘Wish+I+Never+Brain-Washed+Myself’%3A+Minnesota+School+Shooter+Said+He+Was+‘Tired+Of+Being+Trans’">revealed</a> his dark thoughts as he struggled with his transgender identity.
“I only keep [long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,” Westman reportedly wrote.
In another section of his journal, Westman reportedly wrote, “I don’t want to dress girly all the time but I guess sometimes I really like it. I know I am not a woman but I definitely don’t feel like a man.”
Westman’s journal entries cast doubt on the assertions of many major medical organizations that have claimed that regret rates for those who attempt to change their sex are incredibly low. The shooting came as Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro released leaked footage on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/im-not-an-expert-at-all-damning-video-exposes-medical-org-over-support-for-trans-procedures?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=9&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Leaked+Footage+Exposes+Top+Med+Org’s+Support+For+Trans+Procedures+On+Kids%3A+‘I’m+Not+An+Expert+At+All’">Tuesday</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/footage-reveals-med-orgs-expert-doctor-claiming-toddlers-have-stable-sense-of-gender-identity?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=LEAKED+FOOTAGE%3A+Top+Med+Org’s+Trans+‘Expert’+Claims+Toddlers+Have+‘Stable’+Sense+Of+Gender+Identity">Wednesday</a> showing American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala and an “expert” endorsed by the org claiming that very few people regret “transitioning.”
“The shooter was a transgender regret case,” Shapiro posted Friday on X. “The day before this shooting, we exposed the American Medical Association’s negligence on regret data. The morning of, we exposed the AMA’s ‘trans expert’ admitting there’s no true psychiatric assessment done before transing a kid.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The shooter was a transgender regret case.
The day before this shooting, we exposed the American Medical Association’s negligence on regret data. The morning of, we exposed the AMA’s ‘trans expert’ admitting there’s no true psychiatric assessment done before transing a kid. 🧵 <a href="https://t.co/b05PnRCeNB">pic.twitter.com/b05PnRCeNB</a>
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1961454237365256602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The footage published this week by Shapiro showed both Mukkamala and Dr. Jesse Krikorian, a transgender-identifying woman offered up as an expert by the American Medical Association, claiming that about just 2% of people regret undergoing transgender procedures. They made those claims in two separate conversations with Michigan Republican state Rep. Brad Paquette.
The 2% regret rate comes from a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33968550/">study</a> that only measured regret after surgery, not the tens of thousands of kids who have been placed on puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. It also did not measure regret beyond two years after the initial surgery. The study also had an extremely high drop-out rate of almost 40%, making the data practically meaningless.
Shapiro said that Westman’s disturbing journal entries should be shown to leadership of the American Medical Association.
“The AMA must stop endorsing the process of having mentally ill young people meet with woke, affirmation-driven social workers and put on a medical transition path that can never actually change their sex,” Shapiro said on X.
The call was echoed by billionaire Elon Musk, who retweeted Shapiro’s thread and wrote “yes” in response to the post. Musk has told The Daily Wire that he was once &#8220;tricked&#8221; into approving so-called gender-affirming care for his child, and described his son as &#8220;killed by the woke mind virus.&#8221;
Lawmakers are also calling for an end to pushing kids down the transgender pipeline.
House GOP Whip Tom Emmer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-house-republican-demands-minnesota-immediately-repeal-trans-refuge-law?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Top+House+Republican+Demands+Minnesota+‘Immediately’+Repeal+‘Trans+Refuge’+Law">told</a> the New York Post on Thursday that Democrat politicians in his home state like Governor Tim Walz had encouraged mental illness by making Minnesota a “refuge” for parents seeking to have their children undergo transgender procedures.
“They have been encouraging this type of confusion. This poor young man was tortured. He clearly had serious mental health issues and rather than actually helping him, they were actually exacerbating it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You look at the sadness of these tortured human beings — because they do have regrets later — and no, we should have never started it. It should not be allowed.&#8221;

Trans Flag/Medical

Medical Orgs Face Pressure Over Support For Transgender Ideology After Deadly Shooting

American Medical Association

Ben Shapiro

Catholic

Minneapolis

Social Issues

It is becoming clearer and clearer that we have an institutional problem in this country.
Not every crime in a country of 340 million people indicates an institutional problem. Sometimes you just have one-offs; sometimes you just have people who do things that are crazy or terrible, and there&#8217;s really no way of preventing or minimizing that particular crime.
But the Annunciation Catholic School shooting is not one of those cases, because what we are looking at here is symptomatic of a broader ideological ill that has afflicted our state institutions and our medical institutions and has massive downstream effects.
Those downstream effects aren&#8217;t always school shootings. In fact, only on rare occasions are they school shootings, but the effects are harming literally thousands of children across our country. 
There&#8217;s a bizarre transmission effect that happens when the media grants enormous attention to evil, mentally ill people who go and shoot a bunch of schoolchildren. But one of the factors here is that the transgender shooter, a biological male named Robert, who then legally changed it to Robin, confessed he was “tired of being trans” and wished he had “never brainwashed himself.”
“I&#8217;m tired of being trans,” he wrote. “I wish I never brainwashed myself. I can&#8217;t cut my hair now as it would be an embarrassing defeat, and it might be a concerning change of character that could get me reported. It just always gets in my way. I&#8217;ll probably drop it on the day of the attack.”
He was afraid that cutting his hair would show a red flag to the authorities, who might have said there&#8217;s something wrong. He felt that if he decided to detransition, the Minnesota authorities might take a second look at him.
But in the state of Minnesota, there was nothing wrong with a boy saying that he was a girl and his parents signing off on forms to transition him.
This was a person who was clearly suffering from gender identity disorder and was not satisfied with the solutions provided by the trans fake medical community. We&#8217;ve been told by that fake medical community that the only way to prevent terrible things from happening to and from people who identify as trans, is to pretend along with them that they are members of the opposite sex and that we are supposed to socially shame people who “detransition.”
If you listen to the media, the shooter was a woman. The headline from the New York Times — which was totally insane — read “Minneapolis suspect knew her target, but motive is a mystery.”
The amount of Orwellian doublespeak here is insane. Respect the killer’s preferred pronouns, but pretend that the “motive is a mystery.”
We know exactly what the motive was, because it is spelled out in all of the journals and the YouTube videos and on the guns themselves.
This is not a gigantic “mystery wrapped in an enigma.” This is the media trying to cover up the reality of the situation in which a mentally ill person was not given proper treatment and was told that his delusions were a reflection of the evil patriarchy and a terrible traditional society.
A person whose parents were told by medical and state institutions that the most important thing they could do to minimize the threat to their child and to others was to pretend along with him that he was a woman. A person who was told that any sort of corrective activity designed to alleviate gender identity disorder by saying, “No, actually, you are a boy and we need to deal with that in a rational, psychologically tested way,” was wrong.
Instead of doing that, they decided to play along.
And the consequences were murder.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2270-how-state-and-medical-institutions-promoted-the-trans-church-shooting?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
This implicates our institutions. It implicates our schools. It implicates our medical institutions. It implicates state legislatures.
The American Medical Association has been promoting exactly the kind of fake medicine that leads to the abandonment of people who are truly psychologically suffering. That fake medicine which masquerades as empathy is not, in fact, medicine.
It is, in fact, an ideologically-driven crusade to pretend that men and women are identical and can switch bodies at will.
And it is a lie.
If you wonder why trust has been completely undermined in “science,” it&#8217;s because the ideological Left infiltrated all of these organizations, took them over, and then wore their face around as a mask like Hannibal Lecter and said, “Why don&#8217;t you just trust the science?”
Here&#8217;s the answer: “Because you&#8217;re not interested in the science. You&#8217;re interested in the ideology.”
This is not a fringe thing happening at a few schools. It is happening at public schools across the country.
In 2023, Minnesota passed a law banning conversion therapy. When many people think of conversion therapy, they picture somebody who takes a gay kid, hooks the kid up to electrodes, then zaps them until they&#8217;re straight.
But that is not what these states now mean by conversion therapy. What they mean by conversion therapy is that you are not allowed as a psychologist, as a mental health care professional (as a parent, by the way), to bring your kid to a mental health care professional who tries to convince your boy that he is not, in fact, a girl.
So if the parents of the shooter had brought him to a mental health care professional or religious guidance professional, a priest, that could be illegal in the state of Minnesota because conversion therapy is banned in the state of Minnesota.
What this law says is that if your boy expresses gender confusion and says, “Mommy, I might be a girl” and you bring him to a psychologist and the psychologist says, “You&#8217;re a boy, you&#8217;re not a girl. You should stop trying to claim that you&#8217;re a girl because you&#8217;re not,” that would violate the law in the state of Minnesota.
It effectively makes any help for a “detransition” illegal in the state of Minnesota. If you, as a parent in the state of Minnesota, say no to transition procedures or you wish to fight the insanity that is this ideology, you could have your kid removed from you under Minnesota law.
That is horrifying. You have an entire delusion that is now being promoted by state legislatures, by governors across the country, particularly in blue states, reinforced by the lies of medical associations that are supposed to be all about “do no harm” and instead are actively promoting harm with an educational system completely honeycombed with members of the ideological Left.
The costs are very real. This happens to be an outsized cost, because it&#8217;s not just about the person who had the mental illness. It&#8217;s about all the people the person decided to harm.
This ideology is dangerous.
And we see it again and again.

Shooting At Annunciation School Church In Minneapolis Leaves Multiple Children Dead And Many Injured

How State And Medical Institutions Enabled The Trans Church Shooting

Gender Identity

Opinion

Therapy

Tim Walz

The Democrat National Committee held its summer meeting in the smoldering ruins of Minneapolis’s George Floyd Plaza this week, where they rented a hall from the local chapter of the Crips, next to the homeless encampments erected amidst the charred timbers of what once were local businesses, so Democrat officials could try to uncover the mysterious reasons why support for their party is in a decline so sharp, it reminds Americans of the decline in their children’s well-being after Teachers Unions introduced cartoon homosexual pornography into their kindergartens in preparation for changing the children’s sex without telling their parents.
The unfathomable mystery of why the Democrats are losing so many voters was addressed during the last three minutes of an hour-long panel discussion, which was all the time that was left after fifty-seven minutes of land acknowledgements paying tribute to the indigenous tribes who once held ceremonial dinners on that spot whenever they could find someone to eat.
Among the ever-so-puzzling riddles the Democrats sought to answer were: Why are Donald Trump’s anti-crime measures so popular with people who don’t want to be killed?
DNC Chairman Ilhan Jihad Mohammed Pazuzu Mohammed Jihad Jihad, whose pronouns are “They,” “It,” “Snookums” and “Death-to-the-Jews,” addressed the gathered Democrats from a bullet-proof booth in the hall’s Conference Room Number MS-13, renamed the Kilmar Abrego Garcia ballroom for the occasion. Ms. or Possibly Mister Pazuzu Mohammed Jihad Jihad said, “Donald Trump can garner quick headlines by bringing down crime with cheap tricks like putting more law officers on the streets, but we have to find real solutions, like setting criminals free without bail. When you put, say, an accused murderer in prison just because he can’t afford bail, all you do is make him so angry, he would kill again, if he weren’t, you know, in prison. Also, we need more youth programs and anti-racist training because that sort of useless crap has been very successful for us in the past, or if it hasn’t, at least there’s no one left to tell the tale. And we have to address the root causes of crime like poverty and racism, and sure, while we’re diddling around with that nonsense, we may lose some voters in the occasional weekend massacre, but remember this: Not only will each murderer we set free become a Democrat voter, but so will his victims.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show</a></h3>
The Democrats also addressed the brain-busting conundrum of why so many men are abandoning the Democrat party, clutching their testicles in self-defense until they can escape to a red state where they’ll be safe. To get the male perspective, Governor Tim Walz was brought in to speak openly as a straight man, instead of what we all know he actually is. Governor Walz said, “Everyone talks about the divisions in our party, but so what? There are divisions in my family, with my wife constantly complaining about how sick she is of dressing up like Timothy Chalamet just to get some attention. But the guy’s a great actor, right? Who the hell doesn’t want to sleep with Timothy Chalamet? And as my wife always says, ‘Diversity is our strength.’ Or maybe she says, ‘divorce is our strength.’ It’s hard to make out the words when she’s wearing the Timothy Chalamet mask.”
The party conference did become contentious when Democrats were divided between two different declarations on the war in Gaza, one calling for the immediate slaughter of Israeli Jews, and the other calling for their agonizing demise slowly over time. Ultimately, the two sides settled on a compromise calling for a two-state solution: the state of Israel, and the state dedicated to wiping Israel off the map if it’s the last thing they ever do.
In the words of DNC Co-Chairman Jasmine X. Stalin, “When Hitler killed the Jews, the Jews were good, but now that Jews are killing the people who killed the Jews, the Jews are Hitler and good is evil. And that’s what the Democrat party stands for: good, by which we mean evil.”
The Democrats say they will continue searching for the hidden reasons for their unpopularity until they can win elections again and get back to destroying the country.
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fifth installment, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-That-Cameron-Winter-Mysteries/dp/1613166869/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EGZUC370LG46&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Y_NI0mDOKeowShheDQTVx5NH-fAeimJoCD56_T0Acpl8C0mup7uJf-nGGSRLEItaaekoDnvS2vWLMa4Zd2UBXQ8Y-g-P502jOWz-Y8IX3ZQsdlO7WMLrg1xIhNoKmjCorSWUR4C2l_RbiZ7apJ1MfPzGOrrEf7AdAXX6xwnJRVP_XqUfWuMuVthTWscaU3P4vgmS86-96n-721enHfX12CFQWTajqFbVnrsDkexfUf4.6_gTH6h1Bb9Pn375QdF_VAVZSayDvjQBBKGXE-MTiFo&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=klavan&amp;qid=1754049918&amp;sprefix=%2Caps%2C80&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">After That, The Dark,</a> is now available for Pre-Order. Follow him on X: <a href="https://x.com/andrewklavan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@andrewklavan</a>.
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Texas Democratic Lawmakers Flee State In Effort To Halt Redistricting Legislation

Democrats Wonder Why So Many Men Are Abandoning The Party

Andrew Klavan

Democrats

Humor

Satire

Voters

GOP Rep. Tom Emmer on Thursday called for his home state of Minnesota to repeal its “trans refuge” law in the wake of the deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis by a transgender-identifying man.
Emmer <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/08/28/us-news/house-gop-whip-tom-emmer-calls-for-repeal-of-minnesotas-trans-refuge-law/">told</a> the New York Post that the law, which was passed back in 2023 and signed by Democratic Governor Tim Walz, was encouraging mental distress. The law made Minnesota a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leftist-minnesota-just-gave-state-power-to-take-kids-away-if-parents-dont-approve-gender-surgery">safe haven</a> for parents to take their children to undergo transgender procedures if their home states had banned such practices. 
“We got to respect everyone. We got to have compassion for everyone. But we got to understand that we’ve got some serious mental health issues that are being exacerbated by these types of messages by people like Tim Walz and everybody who supported that law,” Emmer, the House GOP whip, told The Post. 
Emmer made the comments just one day after Robin Westman, a 23-year-old man who identified as a woman and previously went by Robert, opened fire during a school Mass held at Annunciation Catholic School. Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed in the attack, and 18 other people were injured. 
“They should immediately repeal it, but they won’t,” Emmer said of the 2023 law. “They have been encouraging this type of confusion. This poor young man was tortured. He clearly had serious mental health issues and rather than actually helping him, they were actually exacerbating it.”
“You look at the sadness of these tortured human beings — because they do have regrets later — and no, we should have never started it. It should not be allowed,” he said. 
Portions of writings Westman left behind <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wish-i-never-brain-washed-myself-minnesota-school-shooter-said-he-was-tired-of-being-trans?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=‘Wish+I+Never+Brain-Washed+Myself’%3A+Minnesota+School+Shooter+Said+He+Was+‘Tired+Of+Being+Trans’">indicate</a> he had regrets about identifying as transgender. 
“I only keep [long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,” Westman reportedly wrote in a journal entry. 
In another section of his journal, Westman reportedly wrote, “I don’t want to dress girly all the time but I guess sometimes I really like it. I know I am not a woman but I definitely don’t feel like a man.”
Police have said that Westman’s writings were “full of hate,” and published portions reveal that he had disliked Jews, Catholics, and considered attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump. 
Emmer said that someone must have failed to intervene in Westman&#8217;s life because there had to have been warning signs about his mental state.  
“Somebody had to know,” he told the Post. “Somebody in his neighborhood, somebody in his family, somebody in his network, somebody had to know that he had these serious mental health issues and why didn’t someone speak up? Why didn’t somebody offer him some help?”

House Passes Crypto Market Structure Bill

Top House Republican Demands Minnesota ‘Immediately’ Repeal ‘Trans Refuge’ Law

Congress

Politics

transgender surgery

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that politicians and political commentators who have condemned prayer in the wake of a mass shooting in Minnesota should “get new politics.”
In an appearance on Fox News, Vance ripped into those who have mocked or dismissed calls for prayer to help deal with tragedy. The vice president said that people who have targeted prayer after a gunman killed two children at Annunciation Catholic School’s church on Wednesday morning have “something very wrong” with their souls.
“If you are a politician or you&#8217;re a media commentator and two beautiful babies just got murdered while praying, and your politics force you to condemn prayer in response to it, you ought to get new politics because something very wrong has gone on inside your soul,” said Vance, who is a Catholic.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a>: &#8220;If you are a politician or you&#8217;re a media commentator and two beautiful babies just got murdered while praying, and your politics force you to condemn prayer in response to it, you ought to get new politics because something very wrong has gone on inside your soul.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/ukwAIWdBbs">pic.twitter.com/ukwAIWdBbs</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1961161979868962889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
A number of left-wing politicians and commentators have downplayed prayer in the wake of the shooting. Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who served in the Biden administration, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/karoline-leavitt-destroys-jen-psaki-for-mocking-the-power-of-prayer">said</a> in a post on X: “Prayer is not freaking enough. Prayers does (sic) not end school shootings. prayers (sic) do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers.”
Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey on Wednesday <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/minneapolis-mayor-trashes-people-for-offering-thoughts-and-prayers-after-shooting">dismissed</a> “thoughts and prayers” during a news conference after the shooting.
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now, these kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school, they were in a church,” Frey said. “These are kids that should be learning with their friends. They should be playing on the playground. They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence.”
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom echoed Frey’s sentiment in a post on X that targeted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who defended prayer in reaction to Psaki’s comment.
“These children were literally praying as they got shot at,” Newsom wrote.
Annunciation Catholic Church <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/church-targeted-by-trans-identifying-shooter-asks-for-prayer-during-impossible-situation">invited</a> prayer in an open letter to the general public on Wednesday evening, asking for support as the community grapples with the deadly attack.
“Please lift up these families and these children in prayer and surround them and each other with your love during this difficult time,” the school’s principal, Matthew DeBoer, and the church’s pastor, Father Dennis Zehren, wrote.

JD Vance

Vance Tells Prayer-Bashing Leftists To ‘Get New Politics’

Vance Tells Prayer-Bashing Politicos To ‘Get New Politics’

Gavin Newsom

Jen Psaki

Mass Shooting

Prayer

The two children killed by a trans-identifying shooter who opened fire at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday were identified by their families as 8-year-old Fletcher Alexander Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Lillian Moyski.
The parents of both Merkel and Moyski shared statements on Thursday, addressing the shooting and reflecting on the lives of their children who were mercilessly taken from them, CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/names-of-children-killed-in-annunciation-shooting-released/">reported</a>.
&#8220;Yesterday, a coward decided to take our 8-year-old son, Fletcher, away from us. Because of their actions, we will never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming,&#8221; the Merkel family said in a statement. &#8220;Fletcher loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking and any sport that he was allowed to play. While the hole in our hearts and lives will never be filled, I hope that in time, our family can find healing. I pray that the other victim&#8217;s family can find some semblance of the same.&#8221;
The statement was read by Merkel&#8217;s father, Jesse, at a press conference on Thursday.
In a statement on Moyski, her family remembered her &#8220;laughter, kindness, and spirit&#8221; that they said &#8220;touched everyone who knew her.&#8221;
&#8220;We are devastated to share that our beloved daughter, Harper Moyski, was tragically killed in the recent school shooting. Harper was a bright, joyful, and deeply loved 10-year-old whose laughter, kindness, and spirit touched everyone who knew her,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;Our hearts are broken not only as parents, but also for Harper&#8217;s sister, who adored her big sister and is grieving an unimaginable loss. As a family, we are shattered, and words cannot capture the depth of our pain.&#8221;
Both families asked for privacy as they continue to grieve their tragic losses. The Merkel family added that they hope to set up a scholarship in Fletcher&#8217;s name.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The parents of the two children killed in the Annunciation Catholic School shooting spoke out on Thursday, with one father urging others to &#8220;give your kids an extra hug&#8221; as he remembered his son, 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel. <a href="https://t.co/DXbYjfmnYk">https://t.co/DXbYjfmnYk</a> <a href="https://t.co/1MBxAnplMc">pic.twitter.com/1MBxAnplMc</a>
— ABC News (@ABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1961206662091755792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is Harper Moyski.
Just 10-years-old, she was one of the kids killed at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.
Her parents: “Harper was a bright, joyful, and deeply loved 10-year-old whose laughter, kindness, and spirit touched everyone who knew her.” <a href="https://twitter.com/FOX9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FOX9</a> <a href="https://t.co/F2n1qAQWe8">pic.twitter.com/F2n1qAQWe8</a>
— Chenue Her (@ChenueHer) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChenueHer/status/1961197043504066696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The gunman, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, wounded 18 other people — including 15 children — when he attacked the Catholic school. Authorities initially said 17 people were injured, but on Thursday, they said that one more child had been taken to the hospital in a private vehicle after the shooting. All of the wounded children are expected to survive, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O&#8217;Hara.

Minneapolis, Minnesota mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, School

‘Bright, Joyful, And Deeply Loved’: Parents Mourn Children Killed In Catholic School Attack

Wikipedia’s editors’ forum filled with infighting Wednesday over the appropriate way to refer to a transgender-identifying shooter who killed two children at a Minneapolis Catholic school.
Soon after Robin Westman attacked Annunciation Catholic School’s church in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, a small band of Wikipedia editors began to police the online encyclopedia’s article on the shooting, according to <a href="https://www.piratewires.com/p/wikipedia-editors-cant-decide-if?f=home">Pirate Wires</a>.
The changes started with an editor identified as SuperPianoMan9167 swapping all instances where the shooter was referred to as a male for female terms. The editor also deleted all instances that referred to Westman’s birth name, Robert, arguing that to bring up the name Westman used before he began to identify as female is “deadnaming” and against Wikipedia policy.
“Wikipedia does not include someone&#8217;s birth name, even if it is sourced, unless they were notable under that name; to do otherwise is deadnaming,” SuperPianoMan9167 wrote. The anonymous editor said the risk of deadnaming applies to the shooter’s pronouns, as well.
The edits received pushback.
“[The birth name] is in the headline of arguably the most famous and reputable newspaper in the world [<a href="https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/robert-westman-trans-name-change-manifesto-mary-family-bfhps6kkf">The Times</a>]. To expunge it from WP is so absurd as to warrant invoking <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IGNORE">WP:IGNORE</a>,” an editor identified as Ergo Sum said, referring to Wikipedia’s stance that any rule that “prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia” in a certain circumstance should be ignored.
Editors tried to argue that they were making principled arguments around Wikipedia policy that should not be understood as expressing sympathy for a transgender-identifying mass shooter.
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“It doesn&#8217;t matter how insensitive it is (trust me, I think she was a terrible human being); it’s Wikipedia’s job to get the facts straight. If she identified as a female, then that&#8217;s what what [sic] Wikipedia should reflect, no matter how disgusting of a person someone is,” an editor identified as EF5 wrote.
As of this writing, Wikipedia’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annunciation_Catholic_Church_shooting">article</a> on the shooting does not mention the shooter’s birth name, Robert, and exclusively uses female pronouns to refer to the shooter. There is only one mention of Westman as “transgender.”
Another topic of debate stemmed from the FBI’s decision to investigate the shooting as a hate crime.
“I get the antisemitism part, but last I checked, Catholics are not a protected minority, or even just a minority for that matter, so the ‘hate crime’ classification does not apply,” an editor that goes by the online name 46.97.170.26 said.
An editor identified as Unknown Template responded: “The FBI classes hate crimes against any identifiable group, including, shock horror, even Christians and *gasp* white people.”
Unknown Template and others who argued in favor of the hate crime designation appear to have won that argument. The article mentions that the FBI is investigating the shooting as an &#8220;act of domestic terrorism and an anti-Catholic hate crime.”
Westman attacked Annunciation Catholic School on Wednesday morning as students and staff attended mass in the school’s church. Westman fired through the church’s windows from the parking lot, killing two students and injuring 17 others. Westman later turned his gun on himself, according to police.
Westman catalogued his extensive hate against Catholics, Jews, Donald Trump, and himself in writings, pictures, and videos. In one entry, Westman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wish-i-never-brain-washed-myself-minnesota-school-shooter-said-he-was-tired-of-being-trans?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=18&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=%E2%80%98Wish+I+Never+Brain-Washed+Myself%E2%80%99%3A+Minnesota+School+Shooter+Said+He+Was+%E2%80%98Tired+Of+Being+Trans%E2%80%99">wrote</a> that he came to regret his transgender identity.
“I only keep [long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,” Westman wrote.
“I can’t cut my hair now as it would be [an] embarrassing defeat, and it might be a concerning change of character that could get me reported,” he continued. “It just always gets in my way. I will probably chop it on the day of the attack.”

Wikipedia

Heated Debate Breaks Out In Wikipedia Editors’ Forum Over Trans-Identifying Shooter’s Pronouns

Internet

WASHINGTON — Federal authorities arrested a young person on Wednesday evening in Washington, D.C., who had threatened violence toward a school, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed during Thursday&#8217;s press briefing.
Following the briefing, a White House official shared data with The Daily Wire that clarified the juvenile was arrested in Ward 7 for threats to kidnap and injure, as well as receiving stolen property, possession of a large capacity feeding device, and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.
Authorities executed a search warrant and recovered 7 firearms from this juvenile, who was arrested &#8220;after an investigation was initiated based on social media posts allegedly threatening violence toward a school.&#8221;
Leavitt shared the news of the arrest after being asked by Iris Tao, a White House reporter for New Tang Dynasty Television, about American parents who might be concerned for their children&#8217;s safety after the Minneapolis shooting, which took place Wednesday morning around 8:30 a.m., when a transgender-identifying man named Robert 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.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Watch: I asked <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a> about parents&#8217; concerns for kids&#8217; safety after MN school shooting.
She tells me a DC juvenile was arrested last night after a probe into posts threatening school violence. 7 guns were seized.
“As a parent myself, there are no words to describe the… <a href="https://t.co/UhaSMhg9jm">pic.twitter.com/UhaSMhg9jm</a>
— Iris Tao (@IrisTaoTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/IrisTaoTV/status/1961128219664437521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
&#8220;We completely and totally understand the concerns of parents across the country,&#8221; Leavitt responded. &#8220;This tragedy is heartbreaking, as a parent myself, there are no words to describe just the heartbreak that these families must be enduring, which is why the president and the first lady have encouraged everyone to continue to pray for these families and these victims and it’s why this administration is focused on removing public safety threats from our communities.&#8221;
&#8220;This was a juvenile who was a risk to not just himself but the community here in Washington and he was removed from the community last night because of the law enforcement efforts of this administration,&#8221; Leavitt said.
<div id="attachment_966703" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-dc-force-thwarts-juvenile-school-shooter-threat-hoarding-7-weapons/trump-increases-federal-law-enforcement-presence-deploys-national-guard-in-nations-capital-9" rel="attachment wp-att-966703"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-966703" class="wp-image-966703 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2231907013-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2231907013-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2231907013-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2231907013-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2231907013.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>WASHINGTON, DC &#8211; AUGUST 24: U.S. Capitol Police, Washington DC Metro Police and U.S. Border Patrol arrest two men who were allegedly fighting with one possessing a gun outside Union Station on August 24, 2025 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)</div>
The press secretary also pointed to the statement that First Lady Melania Trump put out on Wednesday, saying that the &#8220;tragic mass killing in Minnesota illuminates the need for preemptive intervention in identifying school shooters. Early warning signs are often evident with many individuals exhibiting concerning behaviors and making violent threats online prior to their actions.&#8221;
&#8220;We encourage all Americans, as the old saying goes, if you see something, say something,&#8221; Leavitt emphasized. &#8220;If you see warning signs or threats reported to law enforcement, this administration, federal law enforcement will take those reports and threats seriously. They will be treated as a law-enforcement emergency and we will act accordingly.&#8221;
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The arrest of the juvenile Wednesday night in D.C. was one of 105 arrests that night, including 32 illegal aliens. That brings the total arrests in Washington, D.C., to 1,283 since August 7 when President Donald Trump&#8217;s enforcement efforts began.
Authorities arrested a known Sur-13 gang member on Wednesday evening, and many of the other illegal aliens arrested had prior criminal histories for assault, battery on a family member, driving under the influence, fleeing detention and injuring officers upon recapture.
Other Wednesday night arrests were for assault on a federal officer, assault with attempt to rob, possession with the intent to distribute, theft, carrying a pistol without a license, domestic violence, assault with a dangerous weapon, and more.
Authorities also located a missing child and turned that child over to local authorities, the White House official shared with The Daily Wire.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs White House Media

Trump’s DC Force Thwarts Juvenile School Shooter Threat Hoarding 7 Weapons

Donald Trump

Washington D.C.

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom mocked prayer on Thursday after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the power and importance of prayer for people of faith.
During the White House press briefing, Leavitt <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/karoline-leavitt-destroys-jen-psaki-for-mocking-the-power-of-prayer">blasted</a> former White House Press Secretary and MSNBC host Jen Psaki for saying that &#8220;prayer is not freaking enough. &#8230; Enough with the thoughts and prayers.&#8221;
&#8220;I saw the comments of my predecessor, Ms. Psaki, and frankly, I think they&#8217;re incredibly insensitive and disrespectful to the tens of millions of Americans of faith across this country who believe in the power of prayer, who believe that prayer works, and who believe that in a time of mourning like this when beautiful young children were killed while praying a church, it&#8217;s utterly disrespectful to deride the power of prayer in this country,&#8221; Leavitt said.
Newsom commented on Leavitt&#8217;s remarks, <a href="https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1961139199484330194">writing</a> on X, &#8220;These children were literally praying as they got shot at.&#8221;
The shooter, 23-year-old Robin Westman — who identified as transgender — opened fire at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, killing two children and wounding over a dozen more. Westman fired upon students and staff at the school while they were holding morning Mass.
Before going on a shooting rampage, the trans-identifying gunman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kash-patel-says-minneapolis-school-shooting-was-an-act-of-domestic-terrorism?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Kash+Patel+Says+Minneapolis+School+Shooting+%E2%80%98Was+An+Act+Of+Domestic+Terrorism%E2%80%99">raged</a> against Catholics and Jews and also called for violence against President Donald Trump, according to FBI Director Kash Patel, who cited some of Westman&#8217;s writings. 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.
&#8220;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,&#8221; Patel said.
Newsom and Psaki weren&#8217;t the only Democrats to criticize prayer following the deadly shooting. During a press conference after the shooting, Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey made a statement similar to what Newsom said.
&#8220;Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now, these kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school, they were in a church,&#8221; Frey said.
Earlier on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance <a href="https://x.com/JDVance/status/1961044761613083022">said</a> it was &#8220;shocking&#8221; to see Democrats &#8220;attack the idea of prayer in response to a  tragedy.&#8221;
&#8220;Literally no one thinks prayer is a substitute for action,&#8221; Vance added. &#8220;We pray because our hearts are broken and we believe that God is listening.&#8221;

Gavin Newsom Mocks Prayer After Catholic School Shooting

General

I don&#8217;t mention the names of mass shooters. One of the reasons I don&#8217;t is because — as with regard to the mass shooter at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis — mass shooters take inspiration from one another. They look for publicity.
Social science tends to support this: If you deprive mass shooters of notoriety, if you deprive them of name recognition, it doesn&#8217;t spawn as many mass shooters in the future.
But I will use the first name of the shooter here because it&#8217;s important to the story.
The first name of the shooter is purportedly Robin. I say purportedly because the shooter&#8217;s original name was not Robin. The shooter&#8217;s original name was Robert. This is important to the story because this person was a trans radical who believed — as deeply as it is possible to believe — in what can best be termed the Omnicause: The gigantic aggregation of radical Left-wing beliefs, that if you buy into one, you have to buy into all.
When you look at the evidence from the crime, if you look at the actual guns used which had Left-wing radical slogans etched into them or painted on them; if you look at the shooter&#8217;s diaries, documents left behind, and videos, what you will see is a massive number of Left-wing propagandistic slogans, which speaks to the radicalization that happens online.
It also speaks to the fact that people who are emotionally disturbed buy into a broader worldview that promotes violence. It suggests that you are living in a world where you have no control or that shadowy forces control everything about you and your life. And this means that out of despair and enervation, you&#8217;re going to go commit horrific acts of violence.
That pattern, repeated across school shooters — and they don’t have to be trans — embodies a deep embeddedness in conspiracy theories about the world; a belief that they themselves are wronged by the world, that the world has done some wrong to them, and they are going to take it out on the world, on the most innocent, in order to gain attention for their particular agenda.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2269-the-trans-catholic-hating-trump-hating-omnicause-killer?elementPosition=6&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show </a></h3>
So who was the shooter?
In his deranged writings, he gleefully fantasizes about being that scary, horrible monster standing over those powerless kids and speaks of his admiration for the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre. There are many shooters that are mentioned by this shooter in his manifesto, in his videos, painted on the guns themselves, which is the reason I&#8217;m not mentioning the full name of the shooter.
The shooter applied to change his birth name from Robert to Robin in Dakota County, Minnesota, when he was 17 years-old, according to the court documents. That name change was granted in January 2020. The application happened when he was a minor, which means that his parents had to sign off on it. The petition added that the shooter “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
A perverse ideology that masks true mental illness as simply a result of society&#8217;s intolerance promotes serious, depressive, violent mental illness. Ignoring mental illness does not make it go away. Pretending that mental illness is something else — that it&#8217;s merely a rebellion against the strictures of a conservative and patriarchal society — is a lie and promotes mental illness, sometimes violent mental illness.
Another page of the shooter’s diary stated, “I&#8217;m feeling good about Annunciation. It seems like a good combo of easy attack form and devastating tragedy, and I want to do more research. I have concerns about finding a large enough group. I want to avoid any parents but pre and post school drop off. Maybe I could attack an event at the onsite church. I think attacking a large group of kids coming in from recess is my best plan. Then from there I can go inside and kill, going for as long as I can.”
When it comes to the politics of the shooter, we should point out he was a trans radical, and this is relevant to the story.
There are stereotypes that we jump to when it comes to mass shootings. If there&#8217;s a shooting at a synagogue, the immediate mental jump — for good reason — is either a Muslim radical or a white supremacist. That’s because, historically speaking, those are the kinds of people who shoot up a synagogue. If there&#8217;s a shooting at a Catholic church, the immediate jump now is either to a Muslim radical or to a trans radical.
There&#8217;s a reason for that. The list of violent incidents that now indicate trans suspects or self-identified trans suspects include the Covenant school shooting in Nashville, where the police tried to cover the trans issue, even though we knew right away what the likely rationale for the shooting was.
But because the media did not want that to fall on the radical trans agenda, which suggests that religious institutions are brutal and evil to trans people and trying to “erase” them — which is the equivalent of killing them — and because the media did not want to open that can of worms, they decided that they were simply going to cover it up for years. But that was, in fact, a trans radical driven crime.
Another was the Stem School Highlands Ranch shooting in California. A story that was largely buried is that the suspect who was targeting Justice Brett Kavanaugh identified online as a trans gamer girl. There&#8217;s the controversial Club Q shooting in Colorado, where the suspect — who may have been trolling — claimed to be non-binary. There was an attempted school shooting in Maryland in which the alleged suspect identified in this way. There was the burning of a Tesla in Michigan. There was an attempted knife attack on an ICE facility in Portland.
The legacy media have no problem trying to identify Right-wing trends in crime. But when the ideology is on the other foot, they run screaming away from it.
That’s because the biggest issue they are trying to sell is this: Incidents like this must not redound to the detriment of trans ideology, which is a delusional ideology. Men cannot become women. That idea has no scientific backing.
When you spread the propaganda that hormone replacement therapy and surgeries are going to make your depressive, suicidal eyed kid into a wonderful member of the opposite gender, you are not helping your child. You are harming your child.
It certainly has consequences when your claim is — as the claim of the trans radical Left is, and much of the mainstream Left — that denying that a man can become a woman is a form of death, that it&#8217;s a form of erasure in which you are removing someone&#8217;s identity, a form of soul killing.
And you shouldn’t be particularly surprised when that rhetoric gets very violent, very quickly.
Those were Catholic kids who were murdered for being Catholic by a trans radical. Why is that important? Because the ideology that lies behind trans, language that is routinely used by the trans radical community and now the entire Democratic Party, is an inherently violent ideology. It says that if you personally refuse to acknowledge that a man can become a woman, you have engaged in an act of violence.
If you claim that people who oppose your ideology are trying to kill you, that really leaves you very few responses.
I&#8217;m not saying that everyone trans is going to become a murderer or that everyone who&#8217;s promoting trans ideology is spurring people to murder.
But as always, when it comes to the connection between rhetoric and ideology and actual action, if you keep raising the temperature on that boiling pot of water, it will bubble over.

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