Male Annunciation Shooter’s Suicide Confirmed After Medical Examiner Declined News Release

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Patch has confirmed through a public records request that the Annunciation Catholic School shooter was a 23-year-old man who died by suicide.

Documents obtained under Minnesota’s data practices law show that Robin Westman, born Robert Westman, died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head inside Annunciation Church on Aug. 27.

The report, signed by Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker, lists the manner of death as suicide and confirms an autopsy was performed.

Patch first reported in September that the medical examiner’s office declined to release information on Westman’s death.

The office told Patch it does not issue news releases in suicide cases, but past records show it has done so before, including after the 2024 Burnsville murder-suicide that killed two police officers and a firefighter.

Meanwhile, the medical examiner did issue news releases identifying the two children killed: 10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel.

That information came out on Aug. 28, a day after the shooting.

Background On The Shooter

Authorities identified the gunman as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who killed two children, 10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel, and injured 18 others during an all-school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church.

Westman grew up in Richfield and graduated from Annunciation School in 2017.

Court records show Westman legally changed the birth name Robert to Robin in 2020, after a petition filed by Westman’s mother said her child identified as female.

It remains unclear what gender Westman identified with at the time of the shooting, but FBI Director Kash Patel has called the attack an act of domestic terrorism and "a hate crime targeting Catholics."

Online videos believed to have been posted by Westman hours before the attack showed firearms, including a rifle and shotgun, with messages scrawled on the magazines such as "for the children" and "kill Donald Trump."

The Day Of The Shooting

Just before 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 27, Westman opened fire through the stained-glass windows of Annunciation Church during the first Mass of the school year, killing two children in the pews and wounding 17 others, including 14 children. Police said Westman later turned the gun on himself in the rear of the church.

"This was sheer cruelty and cowardice," Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at the time. "The coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church."