Another mass killing, this time at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. It was horrifying: the killer opened fire at a group of kids in the school, killing two and injuring 17 before they killed themselves. No more horrifying than every other school/church/public killing with freely available weapons, but one thing will enrage the right wing: the shooter was a trans woman.
It’s more complicated than that, though, although we are already getting the usual fingerpointing at everything but the gun culture.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also confirmed the identity of the suspect, calling Westman a “deranged monster.”
“This level of violence is unthinkable. Our deepest prayers are with the children, parents, families, educators, and Christians everywhere. We mourn with them, we pray for healing, and we will never forget them,” Noem said in a statement.
Yeah, they were a bad person who committed a deeply evil act, but quit pretending it’s unthinkable: it happens all the time, it’s become routine, and all we’re ever supposed to do is “pray”…which never works. We don’t know why the killer snapped, but there is evidence that this was the end result of long-festering issues in this person’s life.
Two videos, posted Wednesday morning and since removed by YouTube, show someone flipping through dozens of pages of notes dated over the course of several months, which include what appears to be doodles of weapons, middle fingers, and expletives. There are also repeated references to killing.
The videos, which depict handwritten journals and a display of high-powered weaponry, paint a portrait of a person with a rambling and deeply nihilistic outlook, according to analyses by law enforcement and ABC News.
The writings in the notebooks and on the firearms, which are written in a blend of Cyrillic alphabet, English and other languages, indicate a series of grievances, anger and ideations of harm to self and to others.
The writings also appear to show overt references to other high-profile school shootings and shooters.
In one notebook, there is a sticker that says “defend equality” with an LGBTQIA flag, overlaid with a gun. A gun also has writings against Israel.
Taking up a full page of a notebook is a hand-drawn birdseye view of the inside of a church with pews. The drawing appears to show the interior layout of Annunciation Church.
In one of the videos the shooter refers to personal depression and apologizes to family members.
“Depression,” “nihilistic,” “grievances” and “repeated references to killing”. This person needed serious help. Were they given any? From this article it’s not clear.
Their mother was retired from a job at the Catholic church, and they’re clearly obsessed with the church, given that they targeted it. I came away from reading about them feeling that a significant problem here was conflict with the church’s position. Maybe rather than blaming transness for the shooting, we should consider Catholicism to be the problem?
Nah, this was a crisis that can’t be pinned to one single cause. Trust me on this though: the media will blame anything but easy access to guns and hateful religious beliefs.
…the media will blame anything but easy access to guns and hateful religious beliefs.
And lack of decent mental-health care, ESPECIALLY for trans and other hated or marginalized people.
I’m starting to wonder if the notion of prevention has become alien to “mainstream” American society. If she was treated with respect by her neighbors and peers, this likely wouldn’t have happened. If she got mental health care, this might not have happened. If guns and bullets weren’t so easy to obtain, this might not have happened.
Meanwhile, I’ve heard some chatter about an ammo vending machine, like we’re in the Borderlands game my brother was into.. “Tired of killing people with regular bullets and explosions? Buy a Malliwan and light some people on fire!”
The ammo vending machines are in grocery stores in several states.
They are now in Colorado as well.
I was stuck in a traffic jam this morning on the way to work and was hate-listening to a right wing radio talk show. The host was barely able to contain her glee when announcing that the shooter was a trans woman. She also claimed that leftists were telling them not to pray, and stupidly played a sound clip of someone clearly not doing that-they were just calling them out for their thoughts and prayers lacking in sincerity.
@4 christoph
Well nobody should pray, sounds like reasonable advice. If people weren’t praying they would be more inclined to actually do something positive.
It’s the same situation as the October 7th atrocity in occupied Palestine – condemn the atrocity, pay no attention to the circumstances that led to it. Paint a garish, childish picture of good and evil, pay no attention to material conditions and historical background.
Because the establishment aim is not to prevent these things, it’s to maintain the status quo that keeps causing them. The myriad harms that led Palestinian people to turn on their neighbours and the myriad harms that led this person to do likewise are consequences of policies that benefit the powerful. In this case cutting mental healthcare, scapegoating and demeaning people to draw attention from the real causes of social inequity, promotion of bigoted religion, a gun culture that serves the bloated and immoral arms industry.
And the creationists stupidly blame evolution for all this while ignoring the real cause of the tragic event.
Is the news slow? Two dead in a shooting is a dog bites man story. Happens literally every day.
(It’s a large part of why I no longer live in the US.)
You know that saying that hurt people hurt people? It’s true. When I was in the depths of clinical depression in my teens, I wished so badly that someone else could feel how I felt, or at least understand how I felt. I felt like there was this big bubble of happiness all around me, but nobody cared enough to tell me how to tap into it because I wasn’t worth the effort. Sure, I didn’t shoot anyone, but I did plenty of lashing out; even drew a knife over my wrists one night, but then decided the only reason I wasn’t pressing down was that I was too big a chicken. The way I’m hearing this talked about on the newscasts, people seem to think this was derangement, that there was no way this person knew what she was doing. Bullshit. This person wasn’t deranged. She knew exactly what she was doing. The fact that I lot of people are unable to understand this mostly speaks to them having never been depressed to the point of suicide.
I recently heard the shooter was a DEtrans person. Not confirmed yet AFAIK…
Raven @3
JFC
I worked as a cashier in a Canadian Tire* store. When someone bought ammunition they would to show their Firearms Acquisition Certificate (FAC) to an employee who would then unlock the ammunition display case and bring the ammunition to Customer Service. The customer would then go to a till and show the cashier their FAC. The cashier would then get the ammunition from customer service and scan it.
*Other than groceries, if you cant find something at Canadian Tire, you probably don’t need it.
I respect this mayor for being honest in the face of mainstream slime news bullshit and ‘thoughts n prayers’.
https://truthout.org/articles/far-right-exploits-childrens-deaths-in-minneapolis-to-target-trans-people/
Far Right Exploits Children’s Deaths in Minneapolis to Target Trans People
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has decried those using the tragedy “as an opportunity to villainize our trans community.”
August 28, 2025
I would suspect that if anyone investigated deeply, they would likely find the mother (was an employee) and shooter were deeply involved with that catholic cult center, went to them for help and understanding and that the catholic cult blasted them with hate and condemnation which fueled the shooter’s hatred.
That’s what the catholic cult has been famous for for centuries.
^ shermanj : Yup.
You guys are ghouls.
Two kids are dead. That’s a tragedy even if it happens every day. 15 kids are still in the hospital. We’re having a shortage of blood because of the multiple shooting events in a row.
You don’t know shit about the school, or the shooter. You’re making up your own politically biased story based on little to no information. Maybe Westman was a monster- trans people can also be monsters. Maybe she was hurt at the school, maybe she wasn’t. Maybe the Catholic diose was terrible to her, maybe these guys were actually fine. Maybe she was having a mental break. WE. DON’T. KNOW. Stop trying to make the world feel safer by adding a narrative you don’t know anything about. This reminds me so much of Columbine, where the narrative was the shooters were bullied when they actually turned out to be bullies (not that anyone cares anymore- narrative cemented).
Hug your kids, if you have kids, and do something nice to someone today. Life is random, be kind.
@ ^ antigone10 : Us guys?
Really?
I don;t get what about this post nd comments exactly upsets you so much sorry.
We are horrified and seeking to understand. and sympathise and are sharing what we know and what we think here – and that is bad .. why?
Speaking for myself and I suspect many, probly most, others there.
Yes. Think and be kind. That’s my motto, my ideal. I do and will try to live up to it.
@16 antigone10
I bet easy access to guns had something to do with it. Obligatory: “No way to prevent this, says only nation where this regularly happens”.
But no. Now is not the time to talk about that. There is never a time to talk about that, right? You make it sound like it’s a natural disaster. I’m surprised you didn’t end your post with “Thoughts and Prayers”, you blowhard.
beholder:
Did I mention a damn thing about guns? No I did not. I said you guys were making up a narrative about the shooter, and making up stuff about the school.
And saying shit like “Is the news slow? Two dead in a shooting is a dog bites man story. Happens literally every day.” Like this isn’t someone’s kid, right now.
These were my neighbors. Try to muster up a little bit of give-a-fuck. Go donate blood. Donate to the GoFundMe’s
https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/minneapolis-catholic-school-shooting-relief
Those are my thoughts. My prayers would end up being more like a curse, were I inclined to pray.
beholder, speculating that “that the catholic cult blasted them with hate and condemnation” is not solving any gun crime, and is furthermore utterly ignoring antigone10’s point.
What? Not even slightly. You just read it that way. That’s on you.