Transcription
Hello, this is Dr. Grande. Today I will analyze the case of Robin Westman. First, I'll look at the background of this case, move to the timeline of the crime, then offer my analysis.
Robert Paul Westman was born on June 17, 2002, and grew up in Richfield, Minnesota. In 2020, he changed his name to Robin and identified as a woman. But in his writings, he didn't seem too happy about being transgender. There is confusion around how he identified at the time of the crime. I will refer to him using male pronouns.
Robin's parents, James and Mary, divorced in 2013. They had been married for 25 years. Mary worked as an administrative assistant in the business office of the Annunciation School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was there from 2016 to 2021. This is a Catholic school which was part of a Catholic church at the same location. The school had been operating since 1923 and offered classes from a kindergarten through 8th grade.
Robin attended the school when he was younger, completing the 8th grade in 2017 before attending three different high schools. After graduating from high school, Robin worked for a medical cannabis dispensary as a personal care specialist. He ran into some trouble at work for being tardy and absent. His last day of work was August 16, 2025.
Now moving to the timeline of the crime. On August 27, 2025, Robin Westman made his way to the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was the first week of classes at the school. At 8:15 a.m., all the students were participating in a mass. As mass was being celebrated, Robin attempted to barricade doors on one side of the church using a wooden board. He was carrying a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol. All three had been legally purchased.
At about 8:27 a.m., Robin walked to the side of the church and started firing through these stained glass windows. During the attack, he used all three weapons. Over the course of about 2 minutes, he fired dozens of rounds, killing two children, a 10-year-old girl named Harper Moy and an 8-year-old boy named Fletcher Merkel. 17 people were injured, including 14 children and three parishioners who were in their 80s. After this, Robin went to the rear parking lot and delivered a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound. At the time I'm making this video, the investigation into the shooting continues.
Now, moving to my analysis, here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case.
Item number one, prior to the shooting, Robin released two videos on YouTube. The first video was 10 minutes long. It started with Robin laughing. The camera then panned to a note which was addressed to Robin's family. In the note, Robin apologized to his parents and his siblings because he forever tainted the rest of their lives. I'll talk more about this note in the next item. Robin can be heard on the video saying that he was only sorry to his family, not to the kids, presumably referring to the children that he would later attack.
Robin video recorded a number of firearms magazines and cartridges. He had written extensively on all these items with what appeared to be a white marker. The messages contained a significant quantity of expletives. There were anti-atholic, anti-semitic and anti-Trump messages. Robin wrote things like "pain and hate," "blank you," "blank this world," "for the children," "killer satist," and "no remorse." Toward the end of the video, Robin delivered a maniacal laugh and repeated the word "no" many times.
In the second video, which was 20 minutes long, Robin presents his manifesto, which he documented in two journals. He recorded the first journal as he flipped through the pages. The writing is in English, but he used a cerillic script. It took Robin about 13 minutes to finish displaying this journal. At this point, he pulled out the second journal and flipped through the pages. After showing his manifesto, Robin flipped to another portion of this journal where he had drawn what appeared to be the layout of the church he would later attack. He stabbed this page with a knife.
Item number two. The note from the first video was three pages long and written to Robin's family and friends. Here's a summary of this note. Robin loved his family members. They were amazing. He hoped they could move on with their lives without forever being haunted by his actions. He said, "Forget me and all that I am." Robin then apologized to his friends for the confusion and heartbreak this will bring. He appreciated how they helped him through dark times and gave him good times, but those good times could not cover all his pain.
Robin wrote, "I am not well. I am not right. I'm a sad person haunted by these thoughts that do not go away. I know this is wrong, but I can't seem to stop myself." Robin said he was depressed and hopeless and decided to perform his final action against this world. He would rather die on his feet than live on his knees. Robin wrote about how he believed he was dying of lung cancer caused by vaping. He did not want to rot in a hospital bed.
Robin wrote, "Unfortunately, due to my depression, anger, and twisted mind, I want to fulfill a final act that has been in the back of my head for years." Robin talked about how he was selfish and would leave them to pick up the pieces. He wanted everyone to find hope and love and asked them to pray for the victims and their families. Robin recommended against reading his journals.
This brings me to item number three. Robin's manifesto is very long and not much of it has been translated at the time I'm making this video. Again, it was written using cerillic script. The small portions that have been translated paint a disturbing picture. Here are a few things that Robin wrote. He planned to assassinate political figures. Robin enjoyed the idea of killing the children of innocent civilians. He did not know his motivation for the attack, indicating he could not really put his finger on a specific purpose, but he definitely did not do it for racism or white supremacy.
Robin wrote, "I do it to please myself. I do it because I'm sick." Robin selected the church as a target because he was familiar with it. He was concerned about some of the adults carrying concealed weapons, but he hoped they would not be armed because they were older.
As far as his commitment to the transgender ideology, Robin had conflicted feelings. He wrote, "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 brainwashed myself. I can't cut my hair now as it would be an 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." Robin indicated he did not want to dress girly all the time, but sometimes he liked to. He wrote, "I know I am not a woman, but I definitely don't feel like a man. I look pretty, smart, and modest. I think I want to wear something like this for my shooting." The manifesto contained references to mass shooters, including Brentton Tarant, Anders Brevik, and Adam Lanca.
Item number four. What do I think happened in this case? This is just a theory. My opinion, Robin Westman was self-centered, impulsive, irresponsible, immature, angry, sadistic, cold, callous, violent, reckless, depressed, hopeless, insecure, arrogant, grandiose, pessimistic, nihilistic, perfidious, had a sense of entitlement, and was exceedingly creepy.
Other than a few traffic tickets, Robin managed to stay out of trouble. He did not have a criminal record. There was some type of mental health check involving Robin in January 2018, but the report released by the police was heavily redacted. At the end of the report, it read, "There will be no further follow-up. Case status is closed." Whatever happened, the authorities must have been convinced that Robin was fine.
At some point, Robin developed anti-atholic and anti-semitic beliefs and perhaps a general hatred of all humanity. He was angry and filled with hate because he had to suffer with depression. Unable or unwilling to get help, Robin was left hopeless. When he decided that he no longer wanted to exist, Robin was now free to carry out a long-standing plan of harming innocent people. He had been haunted by this disturbing fantasy for many years and was eager to finally make it a reality. In his mind, the attack was his reward. He deserved to experience this one last sadistic joy. Another benefit of the attack was getting revenge on society. If Robin had to suffer, other people would suffer, too. No one could cure his pain, so everyone was going to feel it.
Robin's arrogance and grandiosity came through clearly in the note that he left to his family and his friends. He wanted people to believe that the shooting was inevitable. He was fully aware that what he was doing was wrong, but simultaneously pretended it could not be stopped. Robin distanced himself from his own motive, saying he didn't know why he was doing it, and he claimed to have cancer. Robin thought of himself as a victim. In the note, he asked his loved ones to pray for the people he shot. This is because he recognized those innocent people as victims, but not necessarily victims of his wrongdoing, at least not entirely. In his mind, whatever caused Robin's pain pushed him to carry out the attack. So, the people he shot were victims of the same affliction. Robin was in the same category with them. Everybody was a victim of Robin's pain. This underscores the frightening level of narcissism Robin possessed. The entire world revolved around him. If he was suffering, everyone should have stopped and attended to him. When that didn't happen, he took his revenge.
The vicious attack carried out by Robin would have been even worse, except the doors of the church were locked after the mass started. Firing through the windows was not ideal for Robin, but he did not want to reschedu the attack. Impulsivity was a contributing factor to the attack, but it also resulted in the attack being less lethal than it could have been. If Robin had returned at another time, he may have ended up killing more people.
As far as Robin's gender identity, he was confused, not feeling like a man or like a woman. Once he identified as a woman, he felt embarrassed to admit his mistake. So, he had to maintain that identity. He was stuck with being a woman. Furthermore, he believed identifying as a man would raise a red flag as far as his mental health, thereby jeopardizing the attack he had planned.
Robin's status as transgender has caused a lot of people to wonder how that fits into the equation. If a person is transgender, are they at a greater risk to carry out this type of attack? According to the research literature, a person who is transgender is not more dangerous than anyone else. The role that the transgender ideology plays in this case is not causal. Rather, a profound commitment to this belief system can obscure mental health symptoms that should be the focus of treatment.
Here's what I mean by this. A substantial number of mental health clinicians are firmly invested in the transgender ideology. They believe that a lot of people are actually transgender, but those people don't identify as such due to societal judgment. There is a stigma around being transgender. In order to promote this ideology, there's a tendency to attribute symptoms like depression and anxiety to this judgment. So people being judgmental caused the symptoms and the symptoms can be remedied by identifying as the opposite gender. So instead of blaming distorted thoughts, family problems, substances, genetics or other factors, the clinicians blame society's skepticism about the transgender ideology. They believe they are doing the right thing, but this is actually a destructive pattern. What they're doing is claiming that serious symptoms can be solved simply by becoming transgender. But there is no scientific reason to believe that. These clinicians are providing an incorrect evaluation of their clients. They are blaming the mean scientists who defined male and female rather than actually conducting a proper assessment of the client. A thorough assessment is a critical part of competent mental health counseling. It cannot be ignored just because somebody wants to promote an ideology.
Through this mechanism, the false attribution of the symptoms, people who desperately need counseling simply become transgender. This, of course, does not fix their problems. It actually adds one more complication to the mix. When they realize they are really not transgender, they feel embarrassed about returning to their original identity. Now they are depressed, anxious, and pretending to be the opposite gender. Clinicians who are desperate to blame skeptics actually hurt clients. I don't know if this mechanism contributed to the attack carried out by Robin Westman, but it is a widespread concern. Every person who experiences confusion around gender identity is not transgender. There is no shortcut to mental health counseling. In a rush to legitimize and expand the transgender ideology and to vilify the scientists who are skeptical, clinicians are creating more problems than they are solving.
Those are my thoughts on the case of Robin Westman. Thank you so much for watching. I'll talk to you soon.