UPDATE: Pronouns and other language in this article was updated to reflect uncertainty about how the shooter identified at the time of their death, and changes to the content of the Minneapolis Star Tribune article.
As part of ongoing coverage of the Minneapolis School shooting, reporter Jeff Day for the Minnesota Star Tribune confirmed that court records suggest Robin Westman, responsible for the murder of two children at Annunciation Catholic School early this morning, August 27, identified as a woman. A brief item attributed to Day reported court records show that Westman changed their name to a more feminine one, with the reason listed being that Westman identified as female. (The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s live page has been replaced with a final story that has less detail on the shooter, but other news outlets confirmed the existence of the court document.)
Westman, 23, targeted children during mass, firing at them through the windows, with news reports describing the deceased as an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. The horrific act of violence injured 14 additional children and three adults. Some of the injured are reportedly still in critical condition. The Star Tribune has also reported that Westman’s mother seems to have had a connection to Annunciation, according to posts on social media.
Rumors that the shooter was trans began circulating on right-wing social media platforms such as Twitter (currently styled as X) well before any information was released substantiating the shooter’s identity. In recent years, the trans community has grown accustomed to hoaxes being spread after each major shooting, with far-right actors falsely claiming that the shooter was a trans woman. However, this time, for the first time, the rumors have coincided with reality. (One previous school shooter, in 2023, identified as a transgender man. According to Reuters, the vast majority of mass shooters in the US have been cisgender men, with trans people being underrepresented among the perpetrators.)
Online extremists have quickly acted to incorporate the news that Westman was trans into their ongoing efforts to paint trans people as violent and unstable. In the past, these efforts have largely focused on describing trans women in such terms, despite the lack of any previous mass shooters known to have shared that identity.
Evan Urquhart is the founder of Assigned Media.
It’s interesting how committing a notorious crime causes people to call trans women they/them.
Trans people are no different than any other people, but of course, as with Muslims, black people, migrants and other stigmatised groups, when one member does something reprehensible, the media and politicians label the entire group as responsible or likely to commit similar acts because of their identity. We can only unite and fight back.
An update to this article may be appropriate with the shooter’s manifesto now public. It’s ultimately unclear if they still considered themself trans (hence my use of "they/them"), but they described something akin to dysphoria and a lot of self-hatred for both transitioning AND for not just being born a girl.
The manifesto and photos have a full range of political messages showing anti-semitic, islamophobic, racist, etc., as well as anti-Trump and anti-republican sentiment, so it is hard to discern their true political leanings, but I heard one expert who investigates mass shooters and their motives describe them as "believing in nothing" and having "no message". In particular, the biggest driving force behind the shooting, according to them, was a clear admiration for other mass shooters, which they explained is a trend from specific groups online that venerate mass shooters and encourage competition. (Gross.)
This article threatens the journalistic integrity of the entire project behind assigned media