Minneapolis School Shooter Who Killed Two Children Was Transgender
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has confirmed the shooter changed her name due to her female identity.
by Evan Urquhart
As part of ongoing coverage of the Minneapolis School shooting, reporter Jeff Day for the Minnesota Star Tribune confirmed that court records suggest Robin Westman, responsible for the murder of two children at Annunciation Catholic School early this morning, August 27, was a transgender woman. According to their reporting, court records show that Westman changed their name to a more feminine one, and the reason listed was that she identified as female.
Westman, 23, targeted children during mass, firing at them through the windows, with news reports describing the deceased as an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. The horrific act of violence injured 14 additional children and three adults. Some of the injured are reportedly still in critical condition. The Star Tribune has also reported that Westman’s mother seems to have had a connection to Annunciation, according to posts on social media.
Rumors that the shooter was trans began circulating on right-wing social media platforms such as Twitter (currently styled as X) well before any information was released substantiating the shooter’s identity. In recent years, the trans community has grown accustomed to hoaxes being spread after each major shooting, with far-right actors falsely claiming that the shooter was a trans woman. However, this time, for the first time, the rumors have coincided with reality. (One previous school shooter, in 2023, identified as a transgender man. According to Reuters, the vast majority of mass shooters in the US have been cisgender men, with trans people being underrepresented among the perpetrators.)
Online extremists have quickly acted to incorporate the news that Westlake was trans into their ongoing efforts to paint trans people as violent and unstable. In the past, these efforts have largely focused on describing trans women in such terms, despite the lack of any previous mass shooters known to have shared that identity.
Evan Urquhart is the founder of Assigned Media.