Minneapolis Mayor Jacob
Frey excoriated transphobes for tying a mass shooting to their hateful
ideology.
At a press conference
Wednesday about the Annunciation
Catholic School shooting Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called out groups and
individuals for attacking the trans community in the wake of the horrific
event.
“Anybody who is
using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other
community out there has lost their sense of common humanity,” Frey said. “We should not be operating out of a place of
hate for anyone. We should be operating from a place of our love for kids …
kids died today,” he said.
The FBI identified the
shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who graduated from the school in 2017.
Westman killed two children—an 8- and 10-year-old—when she opened fire on the
building at the beginning of mass, wounding 14 other children between the ages
of six and 15. Three adults in their 80s were also injured.
Authorities announced
during the press briefing that they expected all the other victims to recover,
though they emphasized their varying degrees of injury.
Westman was found dead
from self-inflicted injuries Wednesday morning, police told CNN.
Police officers in the
city are “deeply traumatized” by what they saw, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian
O’Hara told reporters. Westman’s weapons were purchased legally and were
“purchased recently,” according to O’Hara.
During the same press
conference, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz stressed that children in the community
had arrived at Annunciation Wednesday morning to learn and be curious, but were
instead met with “evil and horror and death.”
“There shouldn’t be
words for these types of incidents, because they should not happen,” Walz
said.”There’s no words that are going to ease the pain of the families today.”
The post Minneapolis Mayor Slams Anti-Trans Hate After School Shooting appeared first on New Republic.
