FBI to investigate Minneapolis Catholic school shooting as 'domestic terrorism and hate crime'

Suspect also dead, police confirm, and 14 of those hurt are children in shooting during mass in south Minneapolis

Wed, 27 Aug, 2025 - 20:58

The Guardian

The FBI have said it is investigating the mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, where two children were killed and 17 were injured as an "act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics."

Police responded to a shooting incident at Annunciation Catholic school in south Minneapolis early on Wednesday morning. Brian O’Hara, Minneapolis police chief, said in a press conference on Wednesday that two children, ages eight and 10, had been killed in church pews during a mass.

“Their parents have been notified. Seventeen other people were injured, 14 of them children. Two of those children are in critical condition. The coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life,” O’Hara said.

In a post on X, the bureau's director, Kash Patel, said: "There were 2 fatalities, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. In addition, 14 children and 3 adults were injured.

"The shooter has been identified as Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman. The FBI will continue to provide updates on our ongoing investigation with the public as we are able."

Chief O'Hara explained that the “unthinkable tragedy” took place just before 8.30am during a worship service marking the first week of school. The gunman approached the outside of the building and began firing a rifle into the windows toward the children sitting in the pews. He struck both children and worshippers with various weapons, including a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol.

O’Hara added that there were dozens of children at the mass at the time and that the gunman fatally shot himself behind the church.

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

Local news confirmed the shooter’s name was Robin Westman, 23. He grew up in Richfield, and his mother worked at Annunciation School in some capacity. Westman applied in Dakota county to change his birth name from Robert to Robin, per court documents obtained by Kare 11. That request was granted in January 2020.

Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, who has led Minneapolis since 2018, said earlier in the same conference: “Children are dead. There are families that have a deceased child. You cannot put into words the gravity, the tragedy or the pain of this situation … Those families are suffering immense pain right now. Think of this as if it’s your own.”

He continued, visibly angry: “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.”

In a separate conference run by Hennepin county medical center’s chair of emergency medicine, Dr Thomas Wyatt, Wyatt said the hospital had received 11 patients, including two adults and nine children, ranging in age from six to 14. Four required the operating room, but no fatalities were related to those brought in.

Children’s Minnesota hospital told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that it had five children “admitted to our hospital for care” and “will not share more details to respect the privacy of our patients and families”.

People walk out of the Annunciation Church's school as police response to a reported mass shooting, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, said he’d been “briefed on a shooting at Annunciation Catholic school” on Wednesday morning and would “continue to provide updates as we get more information”.

He later posted: “Minnesota is heartbroken. From the officers responding, to the clergy and teachers providing comfort, to the hospital staff saving lives, we will get through this together. Hug your kids close.” Donald Trump also said on Truth Social on Wednesday morning that he had been “fully briefed on the tragic shooting” and that the “White House will continue to monitor this terrible situation. Please join me in praying for everyone involved!”

Later on Wednesday, reports circulated that Walz and the president had spoken about the shooting.

Renee Lego, an Annunciation parishioner who has a fifth grader and an eighth grader at the school, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that her older son thought the gunshots were “fireworks or a gas explosion” before he saw people falling.

“Both my kids have blood on them,” she said. “It’s just horrific – so cowardly. This person knew this was our first all-school mass of the year. It was obviously planned. This is the children’s mass, not an advertised mass for the public.”

Michael Simpson told the Associated Press that his grandson, Weston Halsne, 10, was “nicked by a bullet as he sat by the church windows”. Simpson said the violence made him wonder whether God was watching over him.

“I don’t know where He is,” he said. “It’s just really hard for me to take in.”

The US secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, said on X that the department of Homeland Security was monitoring the situation.

US President Donald Trump has ordered American flags to be flown at half-mast following the mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Mr Trump said:

"As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on August 27, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, August 31, 2025.

"I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations," Mr Trump added.

Students at the school, which enrols children from preschool through eighth grade, had only just returned for their first day back from summer break on Monday. The school’s Facebook page shared images this week of students reuniting and parking their bikes.

Wednesday’s incident marks the fourth shooting in 24 hours in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over the course of Tuesday into Wednesday, three people were shot and killed in three separate incidents. At least eight people also suffered gunshot wounds in those shootings.

There have been more than 140 shootings reported in elementary and secondary schools in 2025 thus far, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database.

Outside of Minneapolis, there have also been a spate of active shooter hoaxes this week. On Monday, six universities had active shooter reports and all of them turned were unfounded.

- Additional reporting from Reuters and PA