
The killer said that he targeted Annunciation Catholic School and the church next door because he knew it well — his mother worked there as a secretary and he attended it as a child.
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Why did Minneapolis school shooter choose August 27?
Robin Westman opened fire outside of a church at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, killing two children and injuring 18 others. The shooter died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said.In the manifesto shared on YouTube shared before the Wednesday mass shooting, Robin Westman wrote, "I really want to shoot down the rows of pews at all the kids thinking they can hide lol. They are going to be trapped in those pews! Easy targets! Waiting ducks!”.
The attacker made detailed and meticulous plans, attended church several times to ascertain entry points and potential obstacles — as well as picking a time when he knew the children would be there without their parents.
“The school schedule is publicly posted online so I should go through that and look for events that look promising. Oooo! Aug. 27th, that is an all-school mass!” the gunman put in the July 25 entry written in a homespun code of Russian Cyrillic and English words.
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“It starts at 8:15 so that means it’s after school starts and most parents will probably not be there!” the missive continued.
The entry for Aug. 8 reads, “I think my next best option is going through the south foyer doors that everyone uses. The church office opens at eight and there will be employees in the foyer, probably teachers too on that day. I want to be seen as little as possible before I start shooting.”
On August 10, he wrote, “I bet the front doors will be unlocked today. I will go to Starbucks at 8:40, chill there, [then] walk to the church at 9:30, arrive about three minutes late,” describing his trial run of the shooting.
“I will walk down the west side and try door 22 on my way to the south doors. After Mass, I will try to exit out of the main doors and walk down the east side to go to the office,” he wrote
He said he picked the target because of his familiarity with it. “I went to that school so I know the layout. I don’t think I really need to do that much recon at the start of the school,” he wrote.
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Attacker planned to kill many children
Law enforcement said Westman planned his shooting to kill as many children as possible. The sadistic killer “appeared to hate all of us,” said Acting US Attorney for Minnesota Joseph Thompson, as he described investigations into the motive.
“I won’t dignify the attacker’s words by repeating them, they are horrific and vile. But in short, the attacker wanted to watch children suffer,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.
“More than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children. The shooter was obsessed with the idea of killing children,” Thompson said, speaking alongside Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
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