Before his parents divorced when he was 9, the family of Robert “Robin” Westman, who carried out the deadly mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, last Wednesday, were known by neighbors as an odd, religious family who would hold prayer meetings in their home.
Despite identifying as transgender, the 23-year-old shooter had expressed regret about identifying as female and undergoing trans medicalization. He had also been using he/him pronouns and didn’t appear to be identifying as female weeks before the shooting, multiple individuals told The Minnesota Star Tribune.
When she separated from Jim Westman, her husband of 25 years, some 14 years ago, Mary Westman insisted that he continue to take their children to “Sunday mass and Holy Day mass,” to maintain their religious education, according to court documents cited by The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Westman, who legally changed his name from Robert to Robin in 2020, fired a barrage of bullets through the church’s window before taking his own life. His actions left two Annunciation School students — Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10 — dead, and 17 others injured. Three adults in their 80s were also injured at the church.
In writings published in videos posted online, the shooter, who appeared to have been struggling with identity issues, blamed the world for his confusion. He suggested that it could be that he was just “evil.”
“I think I must be evil,” he wrote. “That’s the only explanation I can think of.”
He further added to his parents: “Please do not think you have failed as parents. I was corrupted by this world.”
Former neighbors of the family in the Maplewood neighborhood, where they lived until 2003, told The Minnesota Star Tribune that the Westmans homeschooled their children when they were young and would spend many Saturday mornings on religious education. His parents were so serious about their religion, according to neighbors, Westman and his siblings were not allowed to participate in Halloween.
“They were just kind of odd,” Sandra Edward, who lived across the street from the Westmans’ house, told the publication. “They kept to themselves. They used to have prayer meetings at their house and stuff like that.”
Mary Westman held strong pro-life views and was recorded protesting Planned Parenthood.
While there weren’t many apparent indicators to those who knew Westman that he would attack his alma mater the way he did, his journals revealed an obsession with school killings that began in the seventh grade. And while he took some time before finalizing a target for his attack, he decided to attack the students during mass because he believed there would be less security.
Court records show that Westman’s mother sought to legally change her son’s name to Robin M. Westman in 2020 because he “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
An employee at the Rise medical cannabis dispensary in Eagan, where Westman worked from March to Aug. 16, confirmed with The Minnesota Star Tribune that his former colleague used he/him pronouns during his employment and didn’t appear to identify as a woman.
Pat Kielty, who lived next door to Westman for nearly two years at an apartment complex in Richfield, also told the publication that they spent a lot of time talking together and he never objected to being referred to by male pronouns.
“We talked and we talked and we talked at different times,” Kielty said, noting that he “never would have believed” his neighbor was capable of carrying out a massacre.
Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
