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A Minneapolis Catholic school Mass turned deadly on Wednesday when a transgender shooter opened fire on a church full of children. The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of anti-Christian domestic terrorism.

Two children were killed and 17 others wounded during a back-to-school Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, in what authorities are calling a targeted act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime against Catholics.

The FBI confirmed that it is leading the investigation, working alongside Minneapolis Police after the gunman, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, opened fire through stained glass windows during the service.

Westman, who was born male and legally changed his name in 2020, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene.

“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. “The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”

According to officials, the attack claimed the lives of two children, aged eight and ten. Fourteen other children and three adults were injured. Many remain hospitalised with gunshot wounds.

The school had reopened for the new year just two days earlier, and parents were rushing to the campus as law enforcement secured the building.

Shooter’s Motive and Manifesto

Law enforcement sources believe the assault was meticulously planned.

Court records show Westman attended Annunciation Catholic School and graduated in 2017, while his mother worked as a secretary there until 2021.

Hours before the attack, Westman posted a lengthy and disturbing manifesto on YouTube. The handwritten documents, partially written in a homespun code, revealed a complex mix of violent fantasies, anti-Christian and antisemitic slurs, far-left politics, threats against President Donald Trump, and a morbid admiration for past mass murderers, including the 2012 Sandy Hook shooter.

UPDATE: The suspected Minneapolis school shooter included a “Defend Equality” sticker in his manifesto that included a rifle over a trans flag. He also allegedly pursued a legal name change to Robin, his apparent trans name. He wrote “Kill Donald Trump” on the weapon used in the… pic.twitter.com/Rbt6VxL8bU

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 27, 2025

“I am feeling good about Annunciation. It seems like a good combo of easy attack form and devastating tragedy,” one entry read. Another page showed a crude diagram of the church interior, which the attacker stabbed with a knife.

The shooter scrawled messages such as “Where is your God?” on rifle magazines. Other weaponry bore phrases like “Kill Donald Trump”, “Israel must fall” and “Free Palestine”. Another mocked the Holocaust, with the shooter etching “6 million wasn’t enough” onto a magazine clip.

The assailant also drew a picture of himself as the pagan deity Baphomet, wrote about demonic forces “controlling” him, and fired at a target showing the face of Jesus Christ.

This is what demonic possession looks like.
It’s time to call it what it is.

– “Кто?” = “Who?”
– “Когда это закончится?” = “When will this end?”
– “Помоги мне!” = “Help me!”
– “Я не хочу.” = “I don’t want to.”
– “Помоги” = “Help”
– “Убей себя убей” = “Kill yourself kill” pic.twitter.com/HtuaiRT1Mc

— Sean Feucht (@seanfeucht) August 27, 2025

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that agents are analysing the writings. “We are treating this as an act of domestic terrorism motivated by anti-Catholic bias and ideological extremism,” Patel announced in a post on X.

Updates on the shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota:

The FBI is investigating this shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.

There were 2 fatalities, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. In addition, 14 children and 3 adults were injured.

The… https://t.co/ErFZpSieKS

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 27, 2025

The Gunman’s Radical Influences

Court documents show that at age 17, Westman petitioned to change his name from Robert to Robin, with his family affirming his transition as a minor. His mother’s signature is seen on the application form, which stated that he “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification”. The family paid $311 in court fees for the name change, which took place in January 2020.

In his manifesto, however, Westman went on to express regret about his “transition”.

“I only keep [the long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,” he wrote, according to The New York Post.

“I regret being trans. I wish I was a girl. I just know I cannot achieve that body with the technology we have today. I also can’t afford that,” he also wrote.

Westman’s online activity and manifesto entries included symbols of radical ideologies, including the Pride progress flag displaying the trans and BLM colours, as well as a rifle alongside the text, “DEFEND EQUALITY.”

The attack echoes the Nashville Covenant School shooting, where a transgender-identifying shooter advocating radical left-wing beliefs murdered three children and three adults at a Christian school in March 2023.

According to independent journalist Andy Ngo:

This ultra-violence comes against the backdrop of years of militant trans propaganda, often amplified by Democrats and sympathetic media outlets, encouraging activists to take up arms against Christians, “transphobes,” and so-called fascists.

Ngo notes that in 2023, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor wore a shirt reading “Protect Trans Kids” beside a knife graphic during a press event on the state’s so-called trans refuge policy — a slogan later embraced by armed activists online.

Peggy Flanagan, Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota

He also highlights the “Zizians,” a trans-linked death cult tied to eight killings and suicides, driven by an ideology portraying society as hostile and stockpiling weapons in preparation for violence.

A String of Trans Mass Shootings

As The Daily Declaration has previously reported, since 2018, at least five US mass shooters have identified as transgender or expressed gender confusion — a rate nearly nine times their proportion of the population. These include the 2024 Lakewood Church attack in Texas, a 2022 Colorado Springs nightclub shooting, a 2019 Denver-area charter school attack, a 2018 Maryland Rite Aid shooting, as well as the Nashville massacre.

That report has since been censored by Google.

President Donald Trump said he had been “fully briefed” on the Minneapolis shooting and praised the FBI’s rapid response. The White House later ordered all US flags at federal properties, military bases, and embassies to be flown at half-mast until August 31.

Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram expressing his prayers and “heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness” to all affected by the tragedy, particularly the families mourning the loss of a child.

Despite the contents of Westman’s manifesto, legacy media outlets — including the taxpayer-funded ABC — are claiming that the shooter’s motive remains a mystery.

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