FBI: Minneapolis church shooting was anti-Catholic terror attack

FBI Director Kash Patel said Aug. 28 the gunman behind the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis left a manifesto and other evidence showing the attack was driven in part by anti-Catholic ideology. 

The shooter, 23-year-old Robert “Robin” Westman, opened fire during morning Mass Aug. 27, killing two children and wounding 17 others before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, CatholicVote reported. Westman, who identified as “transgender,” legally changed his name from Robert to Robin in 2020 after telling a Minnesota court he identified as female, according to the New York Post. 

FOX News reported Aug. 28 that 116 rifle rounds were fired during the shooting. 

In a statement on X, Patel confirmed investigators had gathered evidence “demonstrating this was an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology.” 

Patel said Westman had written several anti-Catholic and other anti-religious messages in a manifesto and on his firearms. The shooter also expressed hostility toward Jewish people, writing “Israel must fall” and using explicit language related to the Holocaust. Patel said one firearm was marked with an explicit call for violence against President Donald Trump. 

Patel confirmed the investigation is ongoing and the FBI will “employ all of our counter-terror tools to ensure this is fully investigated and deterred.”

According to the Post, Westman uploaded the manifesto to YouTube before the attack. In it, he admitted he was “tired of being trans” and wished he had “never brainwashed” himself. 

“I regret being trans.. I wish I was a girl I just know I cannot achieve that body with the technology we have today,” Westman said, according to the Post. “I also can’t afford that.”