The FBI is investigating Wednesday’s attack at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis as a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism, officials said after the shooting, which left two children dead.
A shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, opened fire through the windows of the church, hitting children and worshippers attending Mass inside. Two children, ages 8 and 10, were fatally shot. Fifteen children, ages 6 to 15, and three parishioners in their 80s were wounded by gunfire. On Thursday, city officials identified another shooting victim, bringing the total number of those injured to 18.
Authorities said the shooter used a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol to open fire into the pews. Westman, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, purchased the weapons used in Wednesday’s shooting legally, authorities said.
The FBI is now investigating the shooting as a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism targeting Catholics. Police said that Westman created a manifesto with disturbing writings and timed it to appear on Wednesday on YouTube, but noted they hadn’t yet found a motive or relationship between the shooter and the church.
“The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” O’Hara said Wednesday, calling the attack a “deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping.”