Investigators are trying to figure out what happened at a Minneapolis Catholic church mass on Wednesday, but the shooter’s mother is not helping them. Two children were killed and 18 people were hurt, including 15 children.
Fox News reported that the shooter’s mother, Mary Grace Westman, has hired Ryan Garry as her criminal defense lawyer.
When asked why the mother obtained a criminal attorney, Garry told Fox, “She is completely distraught about the situation and has no culpability but is seeking an attorney to deal with calls like this.”
Brian O’Hara, the chief of police in Minneapolis, said that dozens of interviews have been done with the shooter’s family, friends, coworkers, and people who saw the carnage at Annunciation Catholic Church.
“I know we have not been successful in talking to the shooter’s mother, yet, at this time,” O’Hara said during a news conference Thursday. “But there continue to be efforts made to get that done.”
Court documents show the shooter’s mother applied for her son to legally change his name, writing in 2019, “minor identifies as female and wants her name to reflect the identification.”
It is not clear why the shooter’s mother is not cooperating with investigators.
When a reporter asked O’Hara on Thursday if detectives had talked to the shooter’s father, he first said he couldn’t say for sure.
But in the background, the chief talked for a short time with Drew Evans, who is in charge of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Evans told the chief that his detectives had talked to the father.
But police haven’t said yet whether the shooter, 23-year-old Robin Westman, lived with his parents or with his mother. They know that person has three homes linked to them.
“I can’t verify right now which residence he was staying at immediately prior to the shooting, but that’s obviously something that will come with the investigation as it continues,” O’Hara said.
The police chief also noted that the shooter attended Mass at the church while attending the school attached to the place of worship.
“The shooter’s mother was an employee of the parish previously for some time,” O’Hara said. “So, obviously there is a connection between the shooter and this particular parish.”
Tens of shots were fired into the church around 8:30 a.m., breaking stained-glass and pew-side windows as scared students and parishioners ran for cover.
The police haven’t said what motivated the shooter yet, but they have found a statement that the shooter planned to have posted on YouTube at a certain time. The tape has been taken down since then, and the case is being looked into.
The leader of the Minnesota Catholic Conference stated that Catholic and other nonpublic schools were in “urgent and critical need” of security upgrades in a letter that was resurrected and addressed to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The letter read, “Our schools are under attack.”
The request was ignored, and two years later, a shooter opened fire on students at a Minneapolis Catholic school during Mass, leaving two people dead and seventeen injured, bringing the worries expressed by Catholic officials to life.
Tim Benz, president of the private school advocacy group MINNDEPENDENT, and Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, sent the letter, which was first published by the Daily Wire. The letter, which was sent on April 14, 2023, is still accessible to the general public on the website of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.
“We are writing on behalf of our respective organizations regarding the urgent and critical need in Minnesota to make sure our schools are secure and safe considering the most recent, and continuing attacks, on our schools in this country and in our state,” the leaders wrote.
In the letter, the leaders pointed to the mass shooting at Covenant Christian School in Nashville, which had occurred just a week before the letter was sent, saying, “The latest school shooting at a nonpublic Christian school in Tennessee sadly confirms what we already know – our schools are under attack.”