The shooter who killed children attending a Catholic mass at their school in Minneapolis on Wednesday allegedly used a gun that featured antisemitic and anti-Israel writing, as well as the name of the man convicted of the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
The alleged shooter, Robin Westman, 23, approached the side of Annunciation Catholic School and shot at the children sitting in the pews, killing two children aged 8 and 10 and injuring 17 other people, including 14 children. Westman then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound outside of the school, which began its year on Monday.
According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, writing on the guns used in the attack featured “antisemitic and anti-Israel references; praise for mass killers across the ideological spectrum, including white supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists; as well as other school shooters.”
A YouTube account believed to have belonged to Westman shared videos prior to the shooting in which gun parts and smoke grenades can be seen with neo-Nazi messaging including, “6 million wasn’t enough,” “Burn Israel,” “Israel must fall” and “Destroy HIAS,” a reference to the Jewish humanitarian organization. The videos were removed after the shooting.
HIAS was also targeted in online writing by Robert Bowers, the man convicted of murdering 11 Jews in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018.
“HIAS has been made aware that our name appeared on the weapon used in today’s shooting in Minneapolis’ Annunciation Catholic Church,” the organization said in a statement. “The tragic and senseless attack echoes the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, when Jews were murdered in their place of worship. As a Jewish refugee agency, our organization is sadly often the subject of hateful antisemitic conspiracy theories and threatened alongside the immigrant and refugee communities we serve. Our thoughts are with the victims and the families of today’s attack.”
The writing on the guns in Minneapolis featured the names of other mass shooters, including Bowers; Natalie Rupnow, who killed two students in December at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, and the Christchurch mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant, according to the ADL and other reports about the videos. An manifesto revealed in one of the videos also expressed admiration for Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
Like Lanza, Westman reportedly attended the school he is alleged to have attacked.
Last week, the ADL released a study of Rupnow’s online activity that found she and another school shooter, Solomon Henderson, had both joined the violent, extremist online platform WatchPeopleDie and engaged with antisemitic content before committing the shootings.
The Minneapolis shooting is renewing calls for measures to reduce the frequency of gun violence in the United States.
“These were American families, and the amount of pain that they are suffering right now is extraordinary,” Mayor Jacob Frey, who is Jewish and a longtime advocate of gun control measures, said at a news conference near the school. “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.”
The Jewish Federations of North America also released a statement saying it was “horrified and heartbroken” by the shooting.
“Our community knows all too well the pain, grief, and fear of violent attacks against those who come together to learn, pray, and partake in community. We are also alarmed by the vile statements of hatred uncovered in the alleged shooter’s social media accounts,” the statement read. “Our sincerest condolences are with our Catholic friends and all who are in grief following this heinous crime, particularly the families of the young victims.”
