Murder of the innocents in Minneapolis

For the second time in two years, a deranged assassin has committed a mass shooting at a Christian school in America. Like Audrey Hale, Robin Westman identified as transgender and once attended the school he attacked. In Minneapolis on Wednesday, Westman murdered two children and injured seventeen more people in a terrifying attack on the Annunciation Catholic School. Westman chose to target the children’s morning mass before turning a weapon on himself to commit suicide.

​Before his attack on the children of Annunciation Catholic School, Westman posted YouTube videos showcasing firearms, ammunition, and a manifesto. Weapons bore handwritten messages reading “Kill Donald Trump,” “Where is your God?,” “For the children,” and anti-Israel posts. A journal posted on a video references mass school shootings and gunman. The video depicts a person, apparently Westman, saying, “I’m sorry to my family, but not the children. F— the children.” A person believed to be Westman displays a portrait of Jesus Christ placed atop a bullet-ridden target. Westman allegedly recorded another video showing off hand-drawn diagrams of the interior of Annunciation Catholic church in a spiral bound journal, which he then forcefully stabs with a knife.

In the face of this compelling evidence of Westman’s anti-Christian and anti-Semitic hatred, Minneapolis officials claimed they were still seeking the killer’s motive. Mayor Jacob Frey chose the aftermath of the shooting to mock the faith, fuming, “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now.”

​And yet, despite the disappointing deflections of leadership, everyday heroes emerged from the wreckage Westman left behind. Young people, really just children themselves, used their own bodies to shield their friends from Westman’s incoming gunfire. First responders rushed to the church in courage and treated the traumatized with compassion. Total strangers ran to, not from, the scene to provide aid and support in the immediate aftermath of the crisis.