Minneapolis school shooting latest: Robin Westman ‘wanted to watch children suffer’ as officials probe motive

No “red flag” alarms were sounded over Minneapolis shooting suspect Robin Westman prior to Wednesday’s deadly incident, police have said.

A Minnesota state “red flag” law allows family members and others to ask authorities to have guns removed from a person they believe could be a danger to themselves or their community.

Westman was able to buy a rifle, shotgun and a pistol that were all used in Wednesday’s attack.

Authorities have said the guns were purchased lawfully, and there is no indication so far in their investigations that any alerts over Westman’s behavior were raised.

“There is nothing in the investigation so far that would lead us to believe that anything was missed,” Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara said.

The shooter, he said, was able to “lawfully purchase these weapons.”

Cops visited the home of Robin Westman on at least two occasions when the suspect was a teenager, according to a report.

Heavily redacted records obtained from the police department in Eagan, Minnesota, by NBC News, show officers went to the residence on 26 January 2018 for a ‘welfare check of a juvenile”.

The name of the individual involved is blacked out.

Two years prior to that call, police records show officers attended the same address following a report of a “criminal offense” there.

All further details of the incident, except for the fact that the case was closed, have been redacted.

Westman died by suicide at the scene of the mass shooting.

The day after a mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic School that left two children dead and 18 people injured, including 15 other youngsters and three elderly parishioners, local residents continue trying to come to grips with the horrific event.

“I would say I was thunderstruck,” said Jim White, who lives across the street from 23-year-old shooter Robin Westman.

White, 57, told The Independent that he often crossed paths with the suspect’s dad and stepmom, and that the news of the horrific act caught him entirely by surprise.

Justin Rohrlich reports.

The mother of Sophia Forchas, one of the 15 children injured in Wednesday’s deadly shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school, is a nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit who was working at the hospital the morning when her daughter and others began arriving for emergency treatment.

Josh Marcus and Mike Bedigan report.

Police say locked church doors likely saved “countless lives” during the Minneapolis school shooting in which two children were killed and 17 others injured at Annunciation Catholic School.

The shooter, Robin Westman, 23, fired through church windows after failing to enter the building, leaving behind writings showing a “deranged fascination”, according to police chief Brian O’Hara.

The shooter had not been able to get inside due to the locked doors, Mr O’Hara said.

He said the shooter’s writings revealed hatred for “almost every group imaginable.”

Acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Joe Thompson, added that the attacker was “obsessed” with killing children.

“I won’t dignify the shooter’s words by repeating them,” he said. “They are horrific and vile, but in short, the shooter wanted to watch children suffer.”

The shooting at a Minneapolis church was not the first tragedy to hit the area in recent weeks.

Even as most categories of crime continue to fall in Minneapolis after a surge that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd, the season has seen a spike in violence that repeatedly led to armored vehicles rolling through the streets carrying police in full combat gear.

The city was stunned when a man posing as a police officer hunted a series of state lawmakers in the Minneapolis suburbs in the early hours of June 14.

Police say Vance Boelter fatally shot former House speaker Melissa Hortman, 55, long one of the state’s most prominent Democrats, along with her husband, Mark. He also allegedly shot Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, though both survived.

On Tuesday this week a shooter sprayed bullets on a sidewalk behind a Catholic high school, killing one person and injuring six.

And then two children were shot dead at a church the day after, in another tragedy that has left the city reeling.

“This has been a tough summer for Minnesota,” acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said Thursday.

Parents are holding mass shooting drills at their home to teach their children how to cope if it happens to them, CNN reports.

The news outlet spoke to Eeka McLeod, who has been teaching her seven year-old daughter Ella how to deal in the event of a life threatening emergency at school.

McLeod filmed the drill and posted it on social media, where it has been viewed 34 million times

“My perspective is… why are teachers responsible for this? This is my child. That is my responsibility,” she told CNN.

“And if she’s old enough to go to school and die – because our schoolchildren are dying – she’s old enough to know the truth.”

An 11 year-old girl has described the horror of the Minneapolis shooting and how it has impacted her since.

Chloe Francoual had been looking forward to the first Mass of the new school term when the tragedy unfolded.

“It was supposed to be a really good day,” she told CNN. “We had all our stuff ready. We were so excited. Even people who didn’t like school were really excited.

“The teacher was in the middle of saying our prayers, and then we heard just one shot,” Chloe said. “I thought it was a firework like everybody else.

“I don’t feel that safe in the church anymore,” she replies. “You’re supposed to go to the church to feel safe. I don’t feel safe anymore in that church.”

Vice president JD Vance has raised concerns about America’s ‘mental health crisis’ in the wake of the church shooting this week.

“We really do have, I think, a mental health crisis in the United States of America,” Vance said at an event in Wisconsin.

“We take way more psychiatric medication than any other nation on Earth, and I think it’s time for us to start asking some very hard questions about the root causes of this violence.”