The country is reeling after a horrific school shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, where two children were killed and more than a dozen others were injured during morning Mass. Police identified the shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, born Robert Westman, a trans-identifying former student of the school. Westman died of a self-inflicted wound after unleashing a barrage of gunfire on children and staff.
Emerging details from his manifesto paint a deeply disturbing picture of a young man consumed by hatred, confusion, and regret. In journal entries written partly in Russian Cyrillic script and partly in English, Westman confessed he was “tired of being trans” and regretted that he had “brainwashed” himself into believing he could change his identity.
“I only keep [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,” Westman reportedly wrote. He admitted he considered cutting his hair an “embarrassing defeat” and noted, chillingly, that he planned to chop it “on the day of the attack.”
The journal also revealed a mind teetering between self-loathing and violent fantasy. Westman admitted he “knew he was not a woman but didn’t feel like a man,” exposing the painful contradictions behind his identity struggles. Yet alongside these reflections were horrifying obsessions: he praised the Sandy Hook massacre, fantasized about standing “like a monster” over helpless children, and even idolized serial killers. Among those he referenced was Luigi Mangione, the deranged killer who became infamous after murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Westman reportedly adorned his writings with cartoon stickers of the character Luigi from Super Mario Brothers while glorifying Mangione in Russian—a bizarre blend of juvenile imagery and homicidal intent.
Just as disturbing were the political and religious targets of his rage. Weapons recovered from the scene were covered in graffiti, including the phrases “Kill Donald Trump” and “Where’s your God?” It was a direct attack not just on children and teachers, but on Christians and conservatives as symbols of everything he despised.
This marks the second time in as many years that a trans-identifying shooter targeted a Christian school, following the Covenant School massacre in Nashville in 2023. The pattern is impossible to ignore, yet many in the media remain reluctant to grapple with the intersection of radical ideology, gender confusion, and mental illness. Instead, they often brush off the deeper cultural factors that may have played a role.
Westman’s manifesto makes clear he was not only tormented by his regret over transitioning but also animated by a deep hostility toward faith, children, and political opponents. His violent fantasies, paired with regret-filled writings, point to a toxic mix of ideology, identity crisis, and unchecked rage that ended in unimaginable tragedy.
As investigators continue to sift through his writings, one thing is painfully obvious: the victims of Annunciation Catholic School paid the price for a broken system that ignored every warning sign. The shooter himself admitted he was lost, angry, and spiraling, but instead of intervention, his pain metastasized into violence. And once again, innocent children bore the consequences.