Overview

• Police identified the attacker as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot after firing from outside the church with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, and investigators recovered a smoke bomb and a scheduled YouTube manifesto that was removed with FBI help.
• Hospitals reported 17 wounded, including 14 minors, and said the injured are expected to survive after several surgeries, while the two children who died were 8 and 10 years old and three injured adults were in their 80s.
• Federal and local agencies are conducting a joint probe, and authorities say evidence includes anti-Catholic and broader anti-religious messages in the manifesto and on weapons, with additional references targeting Jewish people and President Donald Trump.
• Minneapolis police said surveillance video shows the shooter never entered the church, and they recovered 116 rifle casings plus shotgun and pistol rounds, noting locked doors likely prevented a higher toll.
• Officials and experts warned about a surge of transphobic disinformation focused on the attacker’s past name change and gender history, which Mayor Jacob Frey condemned as politicizing the tragedy, while analysts cited easy firearm access as a key structural driver of such attacks.