Police say US church attacker was filled with hatred and admired mass killers

A sign stands amid flowers at a memorial at Annunciation Catholic Church after Wednesday’s school shooting (Abbie Parr/AP)

The person who killed two Catholic school students and wounded more than a dozen youngsters sitting in the pews of a Minneapolis church once attended the same school and was “obsessed” with the idea of killing children, authorities said.

The attacker, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, fired 116 rifle rounds through stained-glass windows while the children celebrated Mass during the first week of classes at the Annunciation Catholic School, said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.