{"id":181111,"date":"2025-08-28T00:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T00:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/181111\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T00:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T00:50:13","slug":"mom-of-minneapolis-mass-shooter-robin-westman-worked-at-catholic-school-where-he-opened-fire-killing-2-kids-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/181111\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom of Minneapolis mass shooter Robin Westman worked at Catholic school where he opened fire, killing 2 kids: police"},"content":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 The mother of the lone transgender gunman who killed two students<\/a> and injured 17 others at the Annunciation Church and Catholic School on Wednesday morning was an employee at the school, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the motives of Robin Westman, 23, remain unclear, police identified the suspect\u2019s mother as Mary Grace Westman, who spent five years working as a secretary at the Annunciation school in Minneapolis until she retired in 2021, according to a Facebook post<\/a> and a blog on the church\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mary Grace Westman worked at the school where the shooting occurred. Facebook \/ Church of the Annunciation<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has provided such wonderful hospitality, friendship and compassion to all who gathered for the last five years at Annunciation. You will be missed! Congratulations on your retirement!\u201d the church wrote.<\/p>\n

Robert L. Heleringer, Mary Grace\u2019s brother and a former Republican representative in the Kentucky General Assembly, described their family\u2019s strictly Catholic upbringing in multiple op-eds published in the 2010s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their mother would often host dinners with local priests and routinely lead prayers together before departing, Heleringer wrote in the\u00a0Louisville Courier-Journal<\/a>, noting how their lives were \u201cenriched by their company.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heleringer also served at the church their family belonged to growing up in Kentucky, according to the articles.<\/p>\n

Robin Westman murdered 2 students in the shooting. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officers work at the scene of a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 27, 2025. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

After graduating from a Catholic high school, Heleringer attended Xavier University, a Catholic Jesuit school, where he started to grapple with his faith once his mother \u201ccut [him] loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he found his way back to his faith thanks to his mother\u2019s gentle stewardship and support at Xavier.<\/p>\n

Here is the latest on the mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was cast adrift, spiritually speaking, to find my own way \u2026 the truth and the light,\u201d he wrote in the\u00a0Courier-Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1980, shortly after graduating from Xavier, he landed a seat in Kentucky\u2019s General Assembly that he held until the districts were redrawn in 2002.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heleringer reflected extensively on the child sexual abuse scandals that rocked Catholic dioceses across the country at the time, including some at Louisville parishes.<\/p>\n

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey sits outside Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., August 27, 2025. Steven Garcia for NY Post<\/p>\n

Families and loved ones reunite outside the police barricades after a shooting at Annunciation Church, which is also home to an elementary school, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., August 27, 2025. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps our collective shame is the price that must be paid for the unspeakable evil that has taken place on consecrated ground,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

In 2023, three years after Westman legally changed his name from Robert to Robin, Heleringer condemned conservative Republicans\u2019 \u201cvendetta\u201d against the LGBTQ+ community and their identities that he asserted were \u201cnobody\u2019s public business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a contradictory look for pro-life Republican legislators who believe that all human life, born or pre-born, is sacred. One cannot simultaneously defend innocent life and demean the lives of our equally innocent gay sisters and brothers as nothing more than printed names on a birth certificate,\u201d he wrote in the\u00a0Courier-Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A map shows the route from the shooter\u2019s home to the Catholic school. Tam Nguyen \/ NYPost Design<\/p>\n

The Post reached out to Heleringer for comment.<\/p>\n

Westman, who died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,\u00a0was not previously known to law enforcement, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O\u2019Hara told reporters at a press conference.<\/p>\n

The deranged gunman posted disturbing videos \u2014 that including showing pages of his sick handwritten manifesto \u2014 on his since-deleted YouTube and had \u201ckill Donald Trump\u201d and \u201cfor the children\u201d scrawled on gun magazines. <\/p>\n

Much of the twisted messages were written in code that used Cyrillic characters and English phonetic words that was translated by The Post.<\/p>\n

The Westmans live less than a mile from Annunciation in a small Tudor-style home set on a quiet tree-lined street.<\/p>\n

Neighbor Stephen Jeglosky told The Post it was \u201cjaw-dropping\u201d to learn of the horror Robin inflicted on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Jeglosky, 35, recalled encountering the Westmans two years ago while they were celebrating what seemed to be a graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey flagged me down as I was on my way to my apartment and asked me to take a couple of group photos,\u201d said Jeglosky. \u201cThey seemed like a great family. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were kids running around, parents drinking, music playing. Their little chihuahua nipped me in the ankle. They gave me a beer and I went on my way. I guess you never know who somebody is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 The mother of the lone transgender gunman who killed two students and injured 17 others at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":181112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,34483,16482,17635,101949,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,19746,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-181111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-catholic-schools","10":"tag-mass-shootings","11":"tag-minneapolis","12":"tag-minneapolis-school-shooting-2025","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-transgender","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115103650503410686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}