Minneapolis investigators have collected a mountain of evidence connected to the mass shooting at a Catholic school and church on Wednesday, including the gunman’s cache of weapons and a suspicious device that may have been a smoke bomb, search warrants revealed.
Transgender mass shooter Robin Westman, who killed two children and injured 18 parishioners, was armed to the teeth with a Taurus semiautomatic pistol, a Mossberg pump-action shotgun, and Magpul semiautomatic rifle, search warrants for the church revealed, NBC News reported.
The guns were reportedly among 158 personal items, which also included hard drives, that were recovered by police from several locations associated with the gunman.
Westman’s firearms were recently purchased through legal means, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. Police said Westman had no documented history of mental illness.
Over 116 shell casings were recovered from the scene with cops saying Westman fired indiscriminately into the church filled with faithful middle schoolers.
Police also recovered a wood board with a gas container and a metal pull pin that was possibly meant to be used as a smoke bomb, according to the search warrant.
A knife, green fingerless gloves, black mechanic gloves, headphones and a gray zip-up sweatshirt were also recovered at the scene.
The twisted child killer drove to the church in a commercial van which was registered to his father, James Westman.
Police recovered a rifle case from the van which was left parked behind the church with a rear door ajar, NBC reported.
From the father’s home in nearby Richfield, a tactical vest, two external media storage devices, an iPhone, a USB and over 150 other pieces of evidence were recovered by police, the report stated.
James Westman revealed to police that his son, who changed their name to Robin in 2020 as part switch in gender identity, had recently broken up with a romantic partner who he had been living with in nearby St. Louis Park, Fox9 reported.
The shooter’s mom Mary Grace Westman has retained a criminal defense attorney and finally spoke to local police after a day and a half of apparent non-cooperation.
The deranged killer blamed his massacre of children on his own mother, who signed his legal name change documents in 2020.
In a disturbing manifesto shared in a YouTube video posted hours before the attack, Westman said his mom warned him against transitioning — and that’s what made him want to kill innocent children.
“Your words, mother, made me stay in my discomfort unable to ask for help to avoid admitting defeat. You were right mama, but the way you handled it led me to wanting to kill so so many people,” he wrote in Cyrillic lettering in the manifesto.
Westman further blamed his warped desire to kill on smoking marijuana.
“Gender and weed fucked up my head,” he claimed. “I wish I never tried experimenting with either. Don’t let your kids smoke weed or change gender until they are like seventeen.”
Westman killed Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, who were praying in the pews of Annunciation Church just before 8:30 a.m. when a hail of bullets broke through the church’s stained glass windows.
Several more victims, including 12-year-old Sophie Forchas and 13-year-old Endre Gunter remain in the hospital in critical condition.
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