MINNEAPOLIS — The heavily armed assailant who opened fire during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school was found dead at the rear of the church with an apparent gunshot wound to the head, according to preliminary information in newly released search warrants.
Robin Westman, 23, was found dressed in black “tactical” gear with at least two firearms nearby in Wednesday morning’s rampage at Annunciation Catholic Church, police said. Two children were killed and 18 other worshippers were injured.
A search warrant for the church said three guns were taken into evidence: a Taurus semiautomatic pistol, a Mossberg pump-action shotgun, and a Magpul semiautomatic rifle. Police found a wood board with a gas container and a metal pull pin on the ground, according to the search warrant, items that may have been intended to be used as a smoke bomb.
Investigators also said they collected a knife, green fingerless gloves, black mechanic gloves, headphones and a gray zip-up sweatshirt.
A commercial van — a 2015 Ram ProMaster City — had been parked behind the church with at least one of its rear doors opened and a rifle case visible to officers, according to the search warrant. The vehicle was registered to Westman’s father, James Westman.
In a conversation with police after the shooting, James Westman said Robin Westman was his child and was driving the van. He also said Robin Westman had recently been living in the nearby suburb of Richfield, but had broken up with a “significant and/or romantic partner” and was staying with another friend in neighboring St. Louis Park, according to the search warrant.
James Westman also advised police that his child formerly attended Annunciation Church and its school, and that his ex-wife, his child’s mother, had worked there.
At the father’s home, police recovered a tactical vest, two external media storage devices and miscellaneous documents, according to the search warrant.
In total, police listed 100 pieces of evidence, including T-shirts, bullets and cartridges, to be tested by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. A Minneapolis Police Department property report also lists 158 pieces of evidence, including the guns, the items appearing to belong to the shooter, and a USB and iPhone taken from the vehicle.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters Thursday that Robin Westman’s family has been cooperating with investigators, although they had not spoken to his mother, Mary Grace Westman. Records show that she has a residence in Florida and that she has hired a criminal defense attorney, Ryan Garry. He declined to comment Thursday.
Police have not said whether Mary Grace Westman or any family members potentially face charges. O’Hara said that the weapons used in the shooting were legally purchased recently and that there was no previous indication that Robin Westman, who was a transgender woman, suffered from mental illness. Westman had no police record, besides a traffic ticket.
Investigators are continuing to search for a clear motive for the attack and what led Westman to fire a rifle through the side windows of Annunciation Catholic School’s church, aiming at children sitting in the pews, just before 8:30 a.m.
Two children, 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski, were killed. Fifteen other children, ages 6 to 15, were injured, as well as three adult parishioners in their 80s.
Westman left behind videos online with disturbing content and writings that referred to suicide.
The FBI’s special agent in charge in Minneapolis, Alvin Winston Sr., said the agency had not had any previous contact with the shooter.
FBI Director Kash Patel called the attack “an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology.”
Police are continuing to review the online videos posted by Westman, in which the shooter wrote racial slurs, a homophobic slur, antisemitic messages, a call for President Donald Trump’s death and references to the Holocaust and the Catholic Church.
Besides the church and James Westman’s home, two other nearby residences associated with the shooter were searched as part of the investigation.
“Additional firearms are being recovered from those residences as we speak,” O’Hara told reporters Wednesday.
Brianna Seidl, a neighbor of the home in St. Louis Park where Westman had been living, said Friday that she would see Westman occasionally rollerblading or skateboarding in the neighborhood. Police swarmed the home on Wednesday just before 11 a.m., Seidl said, and called on a loudspeaker for a resident to come out.
Police put caution tape around the scene and carted out boxes, she added.
The resident “was very compliant with them. Kind of seemed like whatever you got to do, do it, type of situation,” Seidl said.
Selina Guevara reported from Minneapolis, Erik Ortiz from New York and Cat Corrigan from Chicago.
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