The shooter who killed two younger kids and injured 18 extra folks in a Minneapolis church on Wednesday was “obsessive about the concept of killing kids,” expressed hate for folks from many alternative backgrounds, and “idolized” different faculty shooters, authorities stated at a press convention Thursday.
The alleged shooter, 23-year-old Robin Westman, left behind tons of of pages of writings that reveal “pure, indiscriminate hate” towards numerous teams of individuals, together with Black folks, Mexicans, Christians, and Jews, stated Joe Thompson, the performing U.S. Legal professional for the District of Minnesota.
“In brief, the shooter appeared to hate all of us,” Thompson concluded.
The suspect, who was discovered useless by a self-inflicted gunshot wound behind the church, did have one explicit fixation, he continued.
“Greater than something, the shooter needed to kill kids, defenseless kids,” Thompson stated. “The shooter was obsessive about the concept of killing kids.”
Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune by way of Getty Photos
Fifteen of the injured victims are kids between the ages of 6 and 15, and the opposite three are adults of their 80s, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara stated in an up to date sufferer complete.
The survivors’ accidents vary from graze wounds from gunfire to “very critical life-threatening accidents,” he continued. Whereas a number of the injured have been launched, he famous, others stay “very critically injured and in crucial situation.”
Based mostly on tons of of items of proof collected after executing 4 search warrants, authorities know the shooter “idolized a number of the most infamous faculty shooters and mass murderers in our nation’s historical past,” Thompson stated. O’Hara described it as a “deranged fascination with earlier mass shootings.”
Authorities added that the church did one key factor at its back-to-school Mass that stopped the shooter from getting into the constructing.
“Annunciation Church had a apply that after Mass started, they locked the doorways of the church,” O’Hara stated. “This incident occurred shortly after the Mass was starting, so there’s no query that the truth that the doorways had been locked seemingly saved further lives on the identical time.”
Police additionally consider one of many shooter’s weapons malfunctioned in the course of the assault.
Officers added that that they had not discovered the shooter in any FBI data, nor had they discovered proof of any state-ordered psychological well being commitments.