Robin Westman: Transgender Minneapolis Shooter Regretted His Decision to Transition in Manifesto Posted Online Hours Before Carnage
Transgender gunman Robin Westman admitted he was “tired of being trans” and wished he “never brainwashed” himself in an online manifesto posted before killing two children and injuring dozens at a Minneapolis church.
In a handwritten journal uploaded to YouTube before the attack — much of it encrypted in a makeshift code combining Russian Cyrillic letters with English words — Westman complained about his long hair and regretted his decision to transition. “I only keep [the long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,” he wrote, according to a translation by The New York Post.
Regretted His Decision Before Massacre
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“I can’t cut my hair now as it would be embarrassing defeat, and it might be a concerning change of character that could get me reported. It just always gets in my way. I will probably chop it on the day of the attack,” he added.
Westman was a transgender woman whose mother worked at the school where she killed two students. Westman was previously known as Robert and filed a petition in 2019 to legally change her name, according to court documents.
Westman requested the court to change her name to Robin, records from Dakota County, Minnesota, show.
Her mother, Mary, signed the application for the name change since Westman was still a minor at the time. The request was later approved in January 2020, with the petition noting that Westman “identifies as female and wishes her name to reflect that identity,” court papers show.
It was later revealed that her mother had worked at the school before retiring in 2021. Court records show the family paid $311 in fees for her legal name change to Robin.
Westman began shooting through the stained-glass windows of Annunciation Catholic Church during a back-to-school Mass packed with children around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
A Horrific End

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Westman was found dead at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot. Authorities are now investigating the disturbing 20-minute YouTube video posted by Westman just hours before the attack.
The video shows a hand slowly flipping through the pages of a red notebook placed over what looks like gun schematic drawings.
The pages are covered in messy, hard-to-read handwriting, while smoke occasionally drifts up from the bottom of the screen as the person coughs and lets out bursts of unsettling laughter.
Other videos reveal the gunman’s obsession with mass shooters — including Adam Lanza, the gunman behind the Sandy Hook tragedy.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters at a press conference that Westman, who died at the scene, was not known to the police.
The insane shooter had the words “kill Donald Trump” and “for the children” scribbled on gun magazines and posted chilling videos on his since-deleted YouTube account, including pages of his sick handwritten manifesto.
The majority of the twisted messages were written in code. The Westmans live in a modest Tudor-style house in a peaceful neighborhood with trees less than a mile from Annunciation.