Investigators believe the Minneapolis shooter likely intended to carry out yesterday’s attack from inside Annunciation Church, with the intent of inflicting many more casualties among the children targeted.
According to a senior law enforcement official, the shooter, Robin Westman, visited the church weeks ago under the pretext of wanting to reconnect with the Catholic faith at the school, which the shooter once attended.
Investigators believe that, from this visit, Westman created the detailed, hand-drawn diagram of the church’s interior that was shown on a video the shooter set to publish on YouTube around the time the attack began. Had Westman been able to access the interior of the church while armed with two rifles and a pistol, the shooter would have had a wide-open field of fire inside the church packed with children.
Because Mass had started, however, Westman may have been locked out, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.
“A number of the doors had been locked once Mass began, which is part of their normal procedure,” O’Hara told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins yesterday. “We believe that this step also played a part in ensuring this tragedy did not become that much worse.”
More details on the investigation: The likelihood Westman intended to carry out the shooting from inside the church may be supported by another action the shooter took, according to the law enforcement official.
In a video, the shooter shows wooden boards with smoke canisters attached, which the shooter intended to place through the door handles of the emergency exits so students would be trapped inside. “Check this out,” Westman can be heard saying. “This will be for the emergency exit.”
If Westman had been able to enter the church, victims who fled to the emergency exits would have found them blocked and filled with orange smoke, according to the official. Investigators believe that by keeping the exterior door locked — a routine security procedure — Westman was forced to improvise, shooting blindly through the windows.
O’Hara also pointed to Westman’s attempt to barricade doors using two-by-fours, telling CNN’s Pamela Brown today that it seems to indicate “the shooter did intend to get inside.”