Police have identified the individual responsible for Wednesday’s deadly shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis as Robin Westman, who killed two children and injured 17 others. Investigators discovered a YouTube channel believed to be tied to her, featuring numerous weapon-related videos and a manifesto.
The YouTube account, which has now been deleted, contained disturbing videos showing Westman’s arsenal of firearms. Some of the weapons were marked with antisemitic and anti-Israel phrases, including “six million wasn’t enough,” “extra Jew gas,” and “Israel must fall.”
On one firearm, Westman wrote “I am a terrorist” and “I’m a nightmare” in Russian, along with other messages such as “Where is your god?” and “Kill pedos.” A bump stock was inscribed with the names of six other school shooters, including Adam Lanza, who carried out the Sandy Hook massacre.
Footage from the deleted channel also showed what appeared to be Westman flipping through a handwritten journal in which she described “being that scary, horrible monster standing over those powerless kids” and expressed admiration for the Sandy Hook attack.
Videos linked to her account revealed that Westman sometimes used Cyrillic letters to disguise her writings. According to an analysis by The Jerusalem Post, she meticulously planned the attack for several months, mapping out both the school grounds and the attached church.
“I’m feeling good about Annunciation,” reads a passage from her manifesto that surfaced on social media. She explained that she deliberately chose a time when parents were unlikely to be present, fearing that they might “have a gun to attack her with scary ferocity.”
Her writings suggest she delayed the attack until the school reopened after a break. In several entries, she openly stated that she “can’t wait to kill” and confessed that she “wants to kill kids for fun.”
Reuters reported that Westman’s mother, Mary Westman, had been employed as an administrative assistant at Annunciation Church, the same campus where the shooting occurred.
In additional videos from the manifesto, Westman expressed that she either had cancer or viewed herself as “a cancer on the world.”
She also repeatedly wrote in Cyrillic script, “I am sick, I fall, and I die.” Another chilling entry read, “I am your nightmare. I am the harbinger of destruction.”
According to local officials, Westman had purchased all of her weapons legally. In a 20-minute video traced back to her account, she claimed that her father had given her $2,000 in financial support, which she then used to buy a firearm.
Authorities confirmed that police are examining the direct link between Westman and the deleted channel, according to The New York Post.
Meanwhile, the FBI has classified the case as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics,” Reuters reported.
