Minneapolis church shooter killed children with ‘lawfully purchased’ guns, police say

The weapons that Minneapolis church shooter Robin Westman used to kill two Catholic school students and injure 17 others were “lawfully purchased,” the city’s police chief revealed. 

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara identified the 23-year-old as the “coward” who opened fire Wednesday during a mass welcoming students to the first week of classes at the Annunciation Catholic School. 

“As to the weapons used to perpetrate this horrific attack, there was a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. All three had been lawfully purchased by the shooter,” O’Hara said. “At this stage, we believe that the shooter had acted alone. There is no indication of other suspects directly involved in carrying out this attack.” 

When asked by a reporter about where Westman obtained the weapons, O’Hara only said “I can tell you they were purchased recently.” 

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“Our investigators are working with other agencies in the process of executing four search warrants,” O’Hara added Wednesday afternoon. “One is for the church itself where this crime occurred. The other three are residences nearby in the metro that are related to this shooter. Additional firearms are being recovered from those three residential locations as we speak. 

Earlier in the day, O’Hara said “During the Mass, a gunman approached on the outside on the side of the building and began firing a rifle through the church windows towards the children sitting in the pews at the Mass.  

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“Shooting through the windows, he struck children and worshipers that were inside the building,” O’Hara also said, describing the mass shooting as a “deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping.” 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Wednesday it completed a tracing of firearms found at the shooting scene. 

“ATF completed the urgent traces of the recovered firearms and has provided that information to all investigative partners involved in the shooting at Annunciation Church this morning,” the agency’s St. Paul office wrote on X. “This information is for investigative partners only and will not be released to the public.”