Minneapolis shooting latest: Police investigate suspect Robin Westman’s video ‘manifesto’ after two children killed in Catholic school

The father of a Parkland school shooting victim has pleaded with President Trump for gun reforms following the Minneapolis shooting on Wednesday.

Manuel Oliver spoke out after a shooter stormed a church in the south side of Minneapolis earlier that day, killing two children and injuring 17, 14 of whom were children.

For Oliver, the scenes of Wednesday’s tragedy were all too familiar, after he lost his son, Joaquin “Guac” Oliver, when a gunman entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018, and killed 17 people.

Madeline Sherratt has the details:

Melania Trump has called for “pre-emptive intervention” to tackle the early warning signs of potential school shooters after two children were killed at a school in Minneapolis.

In a post on X, the first lady condemned the “tragic” mass killing and touted the need for “behavioral threat assessments” to identify what she called “warning signs” of would-be killers.

It comes after a shooter opened fire at the Annunciation Catholic School at about 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday as pupils attended mass. Two children, aged eight and 10, were shot dead in the pews while 17 others, including 14 children and three parishioners in their 80s, were injured, police said.

Nicole Wootton-Cane has more:

Before opening fire at Annunciation Catholic School, police say that the suspect, Robin Westman, timed a series of videos to be posted to YouTube to coincide with the attack. Police chief Brian O’Hara referred to them as Westman’s “manifesto.”

The videos, which were pulled from the platform, show weapons etched with racial slurs and a death threat against President Donald Trump.

They included “psycho killer” and “suck on this!” and an Antisemitic that read “6 million wasn’t enough.”

In another clip, Westman shared their reverence for six mass shooters, including ​​Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.

The shooter referenced suffering from depressive and suicidal thoughts; however, they do not lay out a clear motive for the attack.

In another 20-minute video, Westman flipped through the pages of a journal filled with text that appears to be English written using Cyrillic script.

The notebook included a diagram of the inside of a church matching the layout of Annunciation Church.

“I’m so sorry” is scrawled in large letters on one page, with the person filming whispering, “I love my family.”

Police are working to decipher a video “manifesto” posted by Robin Westman, 23, who was identified as the suspected shooter who opened fire at Annunciation Church and Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday The now-removed YouTube videos show weapons etched with racial slurs, a death threat against President Donald Trump, Westman issuing an apology to their family and the suspect giving reverence to other mass shootersRobin Westman, formerly Robert, whose name was legally changed in 2019 after identifying as a woman, opened fire from outside the church, using a rifle, shotgun, and pistol, to fire through the stained-glass windows after barricading some of the doors Two children, aged eight and 10, were shot dead in the pews of the church while 17 others, including 14 children and three parishioners in their 80s, were injured, police said Just hours after the shooting, hundreds crowded inside a nearby school’s gym, clutching one another and wiping away tears during a vigil alongside Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and clergy members Police Chief Brian O’Hara said that the motive for the deliberate act of violence against innocent children is not yet known The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime against Catholics Trump offered condolences to Walz and ordered flags to half-staff, while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey expressed profound grief, rejecting offers of mere “thoughts and prayers”

The Minneapolis community was shattered on Wednesday when 23-year-old Robin Westman opened fire at Annunciation Catholic Church, adjacent to a local Catholic school, killing two children and injuring 17 others.

Residents described the neighborhood as tight-knit, where block parties and community events are staples of life.

Bishop Harding Smith, a pastor who was at the scene said: “Because of what has happened today, our young boys and girls are going to be afraid to even come to school. They’re going to be afraid to leave the home. All they keep hearing echoing is the sound of the bullets and emergency vehicles, it causes trauma.”

But some are displaying resilience as well. A local named Arthur Louie told The Guardian: “It’s everything. We’re so tied together… Something like this happens, it doesn’t matter what our beliefs are, we’re going to band together.”

The suspected Minneapolis shooter, Robin Westman, threatened to “kill Donald Trump” in a manifesto and YouTube video.

In a YouTube video posted from an account linked to Westman, the suspect scrawled political messages on magazine clips, including one that read “kill Donald Trump”.

Weapons Westman posted featured political and antisemitic messages, including references to Jeffrey Epstein (“Israel must fall, release the files”), the Holocaust (“six million wasn’t enough”), and attacks on the Jewish refugee group HIAS (“Destroy HIAS”).

The Minneapolis school shooter also inscribed “for the children” on her ammunition before opening fire on students attending a church service, killing two.

Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara confirmed that the firearms used by Robin Westman on Wednesday were recently purchased.

Armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol, Westman fired dozens of rounds through the stained-glass windows of the church adjacent to the school.

The FBI is probing a series of videos Westman posted online, which feature weapons.

In one, she reportedly slowly flips through a notebook containing illegible writings and a drawing resembling Annunciation Catholic Church.

O’Hara said authorities are working to determine Westman’s motive for the attack.

The family of slain former Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband urged lawmakers to pass “common-sense” gun regulations after the Minneapolis church shooting, calling it a “senseless act of violence”.

“Mark and Melissa believed that children should be able to gather in schools safely, that communities should be able to worship in peace, and that families should be safe in their homes,” the statement says.

“We hope this tragedy spurs elected officials to take action towards common-sense measures on access to high-powered weapons so that no one else must suffer.”