Newly released surveillance footage shows Robin Westman, the Annunciation Church shooter who killed two children and injured more than a dozen others, browsing guns at a Minnesota shop just days before the deadly rampage.
Calm and Friendly Demeanor
The video from Frontiersman Sports in St. Louis Park, obtained by KSTP, shows Westman entering the shop around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23. Wearing a T-shirt reading “a place for well-being” and his hair tied back in a ponytail, Westman appeared calm and sociable.
Store owner Kory Krause said his employees described Westman as “friendly” and “jovial” during the 40 minutes he spent looking at pistols and a rifle.
“What could I have done? What could I have caught? There was nothing,” Krause said. “Should we have discriminated against him because of a weird T-shirt and a ponytail? No. We get lots of long-haired guys with a ponytail.”
“There were no red flags,” he stressed. “He looked like any other customer.”
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No Purchases Linked to the Attack
Krause confirmed Westman did not buy any of the weapons or ammunition used in the church attack from his shop. The shooter carried out the massacre with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol.
Details of the Attack
On Aug. 27, Westman attempted to enter Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis during a back-to-school Mass, but was unable to get inside through the locked doors.
He then opened fire through the stained-glass windows, unleashing 116 rifle rounds and at least three shotgun blasts.
The attack killed an 8-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl. Sixteen other children and three elderly parishioners in their 80s were injured.
Westman, who identified as transgender, died by suicide after the assault.
