Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 29, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The shooter who killed two children and injured 17 others at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27 voiced some regret over his effort to “transition” into a girl when he was a minor, according to handwritten notes he displayed in a YouTube video before the attack.
Robin Westman, who was named “Robert” at birth, legally changed his name when he was 17 years old to reflect his self-identified status as a transgender girl. Court documents show that his mother signed off on the name change.
Westman published videos to YouTube shortly before the attack, which contained written notes, some of which were in English and others using the Cyrillic alphabet. Several Slavic languages use the Cyrillic script, but Westman was not writing in any of them. Rather, he tried to match the sounds of the Cyrillic letters to form English-language words when read aloud.
According to a partial translation published by the New York Post, Westman wrote: “I regret being trans,” and added: “I wish I was a girl. I just know I cannot achieve that body with the technology we have today. I also can’t afford that.”
The Post’s translation states that Westman also wrote he wished “I never brainwashed myself,” but kept his long hair “because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans.”
“I can’t cut my hair now as it would be an embarrassing defeat, and it might be a concerning change of character that could get me reported,” he wrote. “It just always gets in my way. I will probably chop it on the day of the attack.”
According to the translation, Westman also wrote: “I know I am not a woman but I definitely don’t feel like a man.”
Jason Evert: Westman did not get ‘mental health care he needed’
Chastity Project Founder Jason Evert, who authored “Male, Female, Other? A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender,” told EWTN News that he believes Westman “was not receiving … the mental health care that he needed.”
Evert noted that many people who struggle with gender dysphoria often suffer from other mental health conditions, such as major depressive disorder or borderline personality disorder, or have experienced bullying, isolation, and social distress.
“If they’re being told, ‘Well, hey, you need to change your outfit or change your name, and you’ll feel at home in your own body,’ … it’s depriving the young people to have opportunities to live in their bodies and get the clinical intervention that they actually need to receive,” he said.
Evert explained that doctors in the United States primarily follow the “Dutch protocol,” which is to “affirm” a person’s self-asserted transgender identity and then provide minors with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and eventually transgender surgeries. However, recent studies have shown that most children outgrow transgender inclinations and that surgeries do not solve their mental health issues.
“It’s not working,” he added. “We’re actually contributing to a mental illness instead of actually treating it. We’re depriving these young people of opportunities and strategies to learn how to live in their bodies. And instead of that, we’re giving them hormones and telling them that they can hurt their body in order to be their authentic selves.”
Yet, Evert urged caution against suggesting that Westman’s gender dysphoria was the reason for the attack, emphasizing that “most people who do experience gender dysphoria would never commit an atrocity like this and most people who have committed school shootings do not identify as trans.”
“I think it’s careful that we at least explain that, so as to not stir up animosity amongst young people who might be struggling with their sense of sexual identity,” Evert said.
What we know about the shooter’s motive
Police have not identified a clear motive up to this point, but FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the agency is investigating the tragedy as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.”
Videos Westman recorded before the shooting demonstrate some anti-Catholic motivation.
The videos show that Westman had attached an image of Jesus Christ wearing the crown of thorns to the head of a human-shaped shooting target. He also wrote anti-Christian messages on his guns and loaded magazines, which included “Where’s your God?” and a comment that mocked the words of Christ by writing “take this all of you and eat” on a rifle.
Some of the drawings also appeared Satanic, including an inverted pentagram and an inverted cross.
Other messages showed hatred toward Jewish people, Black people, Hispanic people, Indian people, and Arab people. The messages also included threats against President Donald Trump.
Some of Westman’s writings highlight a struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts. He also apologized to his family for the trouble his attack would cause them but made clear he was not sorry to the children he wanted to murder. He showed a strong affinity for mass murderers.
Westman was baptized and raised Catholic. He attended the church and school he attacked and his mother previously worked at the parish as a secretary before retiring.
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Yes, mother had worked at the school and signed off on the name change.
Where’s Dad?
Please, Cleo, you’re not in HER shoes.
Please “Jaques.” Don’t defend the indefensible.
As an alternative, my sense is that the option for silence might best be exercised by yourself.
One does not have to be “in her shoes” to know that the mother’s actions were misguided and stupid at best, evil at worst. If you love your child, you do NOT “affirm” him in an illness, physical or mental. The way you speak about moral issues makes me hope that your title of “Br. Jaques” is just a silly self-designation, such as “charismatic” Catholics often give themselves.
The mother was obviously morally weak, in her shoes or not. But why would you dismiss the question of “Where is the Father?” Or should the whole of culture be feminine?
Br. Jacques, I hear you. Some parents have been emotionally blackmailed and told to choose between a dead son or a “trans daughter “.
Of course the best plan is to resist that. But we can’t know what the parents have gone through.
Hopefully the tide will continue to turn back to the truth and away from this terrible confusion.
I agree with both comments. I don’t want to judge the parents (mother) though I do judge society normalising such deep issues. But if your son wants to become a girl, is interested in guns and surely is showing signs of confusion, and likely taking medications, do you not seek help urgently? Nobody has mentioned Dad yet.
the signs in the home must have been ignored?
There is some information on the internet that it was Dad, not mom, who pushed for the gender change.
Apparently no father in the picture here.
And most likely abusive psychological and possibly medical practices by adults monetizing this young man’s mental disorders.
Could be that in the mind of the Minnesota shooter, he is “proving” the “real battle” going on for the “gender”-related politics.
Where his true “warrior persona” would overrides his “dying statements”. If so -which then is called lying and criminal deception.
Using falsified “self-sacrifice” with “credible re-explanation” to “authenticate” and “establish” a lie.
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/08/26/trumps-hhs-gives-states-60-days-to-remove-gender-ideology-in-school-material/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/08/25/three-bills-undermining-parental-rights-moving-forward-in-california/
It would be best to prevent the shooting. Each team of ushers should include at least one with some police or military experience. Ushers should include at least one with this qualification and carrying a weapon.
why has our country come to this?
so the entire perimeter must be guarded, to stop shootings by cowards through the windows, in order to worship the God who commanded, “Thou shalt not kill?”
I went to Wedn school mass for 8 years and we never had any ushers, on the inside or outside.
He did predict this though, in his brief life on earth.
You are correct. It only makes sense to provide protections for worshipers who are defenseless against mentally disturbed or evil people.
But Patrick, this individual shot through a window outside. I may be wrong about this, but I thought the ushers were not outside–they were in all likelihood inside the nave, perhaps even at the back of the nave. And it was a school mass, so it’s possible that the “ushers” were older boys, certainly not able to disarm a full-grown man/woman with three guns and some kind of psychological disorder. I suppose there could have been lawncare or maintenance men (perhaps hired by the parish and not associated with the parish in any way) outdoors, but they are probably instructed not to run their mowers or do anything “noisy” during the school mass.
The kids (many of them very young children), teachers, and any other Mass attendees were sitting ducks. Thankfully most of them were able to take shelter under the pews and eventually make their way to a safe place in the church building. So sad about the two little ones who were killed–this is unimaginable to those of us with children or grandchildren.
I’m not sure that anything could have been done to stop the shooter, unless, like I said, some big burly maintenance people or perhaps a passing police person would have seen him and tackled him outside, obviously at the risk of their own lives.
As long as the American psycho-babblists follow the Dutch Protocol (below) we can expect more of the same depravity now and forever. One may reasonably suspect that Father James Martin would also blame the Traditional Church for not accommodating the LGBTQI community.
“Evert explained that doctors in the United States primarily follow the “Dutch protocol,” which is to “affirm” a person’s self-asserted transgender identity and then provide minors with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and eventually transgender surgeries.”
“One may reasonably suspect that Father James Martin would also blame the Traditional Church for not accommodating the LGBTQI community.”
AFCz, would accommodating the LTBTQI community have prevented this? The LGBTQI community is generally pretty peaceable and generally are the victims of violent crime rather than the perpetrators. And although they are saddened by not being accommodated, often they CAN find Catholic parishes that will welcome them even if the parish doesn’t affirm their sexual lifestyle (just like a parish won’t affirm sins that other parishioners commit). If they can’t find a Catholic parish, there are certainly plenty of ELCA Lutheran church that will welcome with rainbow banners and open arms, and will affirm their “choice.”
JMO, but I think it’s not the gender or the sexuality that prompted this person to shoot innocent children–it was his/her mental/emotional illness that was in all likelihood attributed (possibly incorrectly) to gender dysphoria instead of addressing the likelihood that the person also suffered from depression, manic-depressive syndrome, or some other psychological/mental/emotional illness that eventually led them to develop a violent mindset with no conscience. Eventually they are compelled by their condition to kill to try to deal with their suffering and pain by killing. There may also have been some demonic influence if the perpetrator had done any dabbling in the psychic world and practices.
We don’t really know. And considering the short-staffing that the medical community is experiencing, along with the expense of getting medical and psychological intervention (generally not covered well by any public aid or even by regular healthcare insurance), it’s likely that there are more people in the U.S. suffering from untreated or misdiagnosed conditions that require medical/psychiatric intervention and care and may lead to erratic or violent behavior.
It’s just all so sad. God help us all!
I transitioned and lived ten years as a man. It was ten years of deepening misery and pain. Accommodating the transgender agenda will not help. It is a predatory movement based in lies. The only thing that saved me and got me through the hell of detransition was Jesus Christ and the sacraments of the Catholic Church.
Jenny: Thank you and thank God that someone on these pages has the moral courage and integrity of mind to speak truthfully about the lies which permeate this culture. Conspiring with lies can NEVER be an act of someone who says he or she is follower of Jesus Christ.
suicide rate is higher, is my understanding- and this person used the innocent to commit a grandiose suicide
it seems that espc in a smaller household the signs of disturbance would have been quite evident – that’s where the help or intervention should have started; is there a father in the picture?
We need to love children who are confused about their gender.
By love, I mean giving them the truth. God has created us either male or female and that is an ontological reality that can never be changed.
How can these mixed up young people ever trust anyone when those closest to them, their parents, family members, teachers, doctors, therapists, and even some clergy members affirm them in a lie? Deep down inside we all know who God created us to be.
The pain, anger, insecurity, disaffection and distrust that comes from being lied to by those who should be caring for our physical and mental well-being will inevitably lead to some form of acting out and this is one horrific example of that.
Thank you, Anne Marie for speaking truth to the lies that permeate the discussion surrounding this tragedy.
Any kid should be held harmless against potential mistakes until they are 18 and out of the house. Of course, now the parents can keep them on the insurance even if they are out of the house and not in school until 25.