‘They were literally praying’: Mayor and police chief reveal details of Minneapolis shooting
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A “manifesto” thought to belong to the suspect in the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting that left two children dead seems to shed new light on their planning.
Robin Westman, 23, was identified as the shooter who fired through the stained-glass windows at the church next to Annunciation Catholic School around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, as students were celebrating Mass at the start of the academic year.
Two children, aged 8 and 10, were shot and killed in the church pews, while 18 others, including 15 children and three parishioners in their 80s, were injured, police said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Wednesday afternoon that investigators were reviewing a video “manifesto” posted to YouTube to “try and develop a motive,” which has not yet been identified.
Flipping through the pages of a journal written using Cyrillic letters, Westman weighed when and where it might be best to attack “a large group of kids,” according to an analysis by BBC Verify.
The suspect also expressed a desire to “catch a big assembly on the first day of school,” avoid parents because they could be armed and ability to fire indiscriminately.
Nurse mom of Minnesota shooting victim was working in ICU when wounded daughter arrived
The mother of Sophia Forchas, one of the 15 children injured in Wednesday’s deadly shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school, is a nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit who was working at the hospital the morning when her daughter and others began arriving for emergency treatment.
Oliver O’Connell28 August 2025 21:24
Shooter wanted to kill ‘defenseless children’ and was familiar with layout of church
At today’s press conference, the authorities said it is still unclear why the shooter decided to attack the Annunciation Catholic School and church, with Minneapolis Police Chief Biran O’Hara telling reporters: “We have not found a specific trigger for why to target the children at this church.”
However, in “hundreds of pages of writings,” it was clear that the shooter “wanted to kill children, defenseless children,” according to U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson.
Further, the shooter did attend the school, and his mother worked for the parish, so there was a familiarity with the target and when it might be at its most vulnerable.
Chillingly, in a diary seen on a since-removed YouTube video that the shooter posted, plans for an attack on the church are laid out in detail, The New York Post reports.
They include a diagram of the church and how the shooter found the date and time of an all-school mass from a publicly posted schedule on the school’s website.
“I went to that school so I know the layout. I don’t think I really need to do that much recon at the start of the school,” the shooter wrote, even adding which parking spot to use and noting that there would likely be no one to fight back, only “old people and some mom-aged ladies, some with very young kids.”
Oliver O’Connell28 August 2025 21:06
Uvalde families sent wreath in memory of victims
A wreath of flowers was left at a makeshift memorial on behalf of the families of victims of the Robb Elementary School school shootings in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022.
Families of the victims of the Uvalde school shooting sent a wreath of flowers in support of the Annunciation Catholic School community following yesterday’s shooting. (AP)
The message reads: ‘We get it. With love, Uvalde’ (AP)
Another wreath was sent by the Apalachee High School moms — the high school in Winder, Georgia, was the site of a 2024 mass shooting that saw two students and two teachers killed.
Flowers were also left on behalf of the Apalachee High School moms (AP)Watch: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey calls for ban on assault weapons
Oliver O’Connell28 August 2025 20:39
‘The shooter clearly hated all of us’
At today’s press conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said 116 rifle rounds were found at the scene of the shooting, along with one live round from a handgun and three shotgun shells.
O’Hara said that the handgun “appears to have malfunctioned as the shooter attempted to use it and became stuck in the chamber.”
Four search warrants were executed on Wednesday, and among the hundreds of pieces of evidence recovered are electronic devices that will now be processed for analysis.
All evidence will be followed to its logical conclusion. Police say they continue to work toward establishing a specific motive.
“What we can say so far is that this is an individual who, unfortunately, like so many other mass shooters in this country and around the world, had some deranged fascination with previous mass shooters and very disturbing writings toward many individuals and groups of people,” said O’Hara. “And he fantasized about the plans of other mass shooters. Unfortunately, this has become all too common in our society.”
“That being said, we know ultimately the purpose of the shooter’s actions was to obtain notoriety for the shooter themselves. That being said, I have only said the shooter’s name once, and I ask members of the media to stop using the shooter’s name. That was the whole purpose of why he did this heinous act, to obtain notoriety for themselves.”
O’Hara asked the media to stop using the shooter’s name.
The Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, Joe Thompson, added that the shooter acted alone and the threat died with the shooter.
On investigating the motive, Thompson said the shooter left behind hundreds of pages of writings describing their plans, mental state, and hate “toward almost every group imaginable.”
“In short, the shooter clearly hated all of us. The shooter’s heart was full of hate,” he said, adding that the only group the shooter admired was other school shooters and mass murderers.
More than anything, the shooter “wanted to kill children, defenseless children.”
“The shooter saw the attack as a way to target our most vulnerable among us while they were at their most vulnerable at school and at church,” Thompson said.
Oliver O’Connell28 August 2025 20:30
Watch LIVE: Minneapolis police news conference underway
Law enforcement officials are holding a news conference at the Minneapolis Police Department to give updates on yesterday’s mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and school.
Oliver O’Connell28 August 2025 20:13
I’d never imagined that I come to the United States and be in high school and that there would be a school shooting, and that I, myself and my kids to come, would practice school drills on how to avoid being gunned down in one of the greatest nations in the world. There is something fundamentally broken.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
Oliver O’Connell28 August 2025 20:02
Lawmakers call for federal and state bans on assault weapons
Minnesota Democratic lawmakers called for state and federal bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines at a rally at Minneapolis City Hall.
“There is no reason that someone should be able to reel off 30 shots before they even have to reload,” Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey said. “We’re not talking about your father’s hunting rifle here. We’re talking about guns that are built to pierce armor and kill people.”
Frey encouraged legislators to think of the children killed and injured in the attack on Annunciation Catholic School as if they were their own.
“Think of those last words that you had with your child just this morning before you sent them into school. You kissed them on the cheek. You got them set up with their shoes. You pushed them a pouch of applesauce. Maybe these were little annoyances, but the truth is, that there’s this common and beautiful thing: We love our children,” he said.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents the area in Congress, added that “it shouldn’t be hard to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition.”
“What is hard, is being a mother, having just dropped off your babies, just returning home to clean up the mess that was left after breakfast … and receiving that phone call, before you are even able to get rid of the residue that your babies left as you dropped them off at school, and to hear that your two angels are no more,” Omar said.
“That someone evil enough was afforded the ability to get a weapon that could be used to assassinate them through a window at their school while they sat for morning Mass.”
She added: “I know that in America, we are people of faith, because these babies that were gunned down were actually kneeling in prayer. But what I do not know is why, uniquely in America, we have the capacity to not change what we know we can.”
Oliver O’Connell28 August 2025 19:50
FBI director says evidence demonstrates shooting was ‘act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology’
FBI Director Kash Patel has posted an update on the bureau’s investigation into yesterday’s shooting.
He wrote on X: “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.”
Patel provided the following details on the “manifesto” left by Westman:
Subject left multiple anti-Catholic, anti-religious references both in his manifesto and written on his firearmsSubject expressed hatred and violence toward Jewish people, writing “Israel must fall,” “Free Palestine,” and using explicit language related to the HolocaustHe wrote an explicit call for violence against President Trump on a firearm magazine
“The FBI investigation is still ongoing. We will employ all of our counter-terror tools to ensure this is fully investigated and deterred,” he wrote. “And as promised, we will continue to update when able.”
Oliver O’Connell28 August 2025 19:35
Minneapolis mayor thanks Gov. Walz for additional resources
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has thanked Gov. Tim Walz for sending additional law enforcement resources to the city in the wake of yesterday’s shooting.
He wrote on X: “Thank you @GovTimWalz for sending additional law enforcement resources to patrol and protect our schools, places of worship, and neighborhoods. In the wake of yesterday’s horrifying school shooting, we are grateful for your partnership in keeping our city safe.”
Oliver O’Connell28 August 2025 19:29