Gerrard Kaonga
A former teacher of the Minneapolis shooting suspect has spoken out on social media following the incident.
While celebrating Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church on Wednesday (August 27), multiple people were shot in a violent and brutal attack.
Authorities later confirmed that 10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel were shot dead while 18 other people were injured, 15 of them children and three parishioners in their 80s.
Police named 23-year-old Robin Westman as the perpetrator, and, according to officials, Westman took their own life following the shooting.
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Kash Patel, director of the FBI, said his agency is currently treating the crime as an ‘act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics'.
In an apparent manifesto, Westman gave insights into their mental state, including their difficulties with their gender.
While authorities continue to investigate motives for the attack, people who previously knew Westman have also spoken out, including their former art teacher.
The teacher, Sarah Reely, said Westman was in her class for a year at an all-boys prep school in Minnesota back in 2017. They added that they noticed evidence of self-harm on the student’s arm and reported it at the time.
Writing on a Facebook post earlier this week, she said: “Self harm is either a cry for help, an indication of self hate, or both. But it’s always sign something is wrong."
She also described Westman as a 'kid who needed help' and that they were 'definitely odd, was really into furries and odd artwork and said some odd things', but added that they 'weren’t violent towards others to my knowledge', adding: "Being odd isn’t a red flag — I was an odd kid myself and have always had a heart for the odd kids.”
Westman eventually transferred schools, according to NBC News, and Reeley said she'd often wondered if her former student was okay.
In her post, Reeley further explained that she would not name the school she'd taught at to keep it out of the spotlight.
She also commented that her post wasn't trying to 'build sympathy for a murderer or place blame on any one person or entity for failing to stop this'.
"I am posting this to remind people that it’s a snowball effect of multiple system failures at a national level, that every murderer was once a kid in someones classroom who needed help, and that this issue is so much deeper and more complicated than we want to admit." Reely wrote.
She also commented on the reactions from the political left and right in regards to the shooting and ultimately called for better mental health support for young people, writing: "We currently live in a country oversaturated with guns, with firearms ingrained deeply into our culture.
“We can work to create buy-in for gun law reforms, but until then, we need to operate within the country we actually live in and not the country we wish we lived in."
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 to reach a 24-hour crisis center or you can webchat at 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.