The attacker who killed two children and wounded 17 other people in the Catholic Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis (United States) on August 27 expressed a certain regret for his attempt to “transition” to a woman when she was a minor, according to handwritten notes she showed in a YouTube video before the attack.
Robin Westman, called “Robert” at birth, legally changed his name at age 17 to reflect his self -identified condition as a transgender girl. Judicial documents show that his mother approved the name change.
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Westman posted videos on YouTube shortly before the attack, containing written notes, some in English and others using the Cyrillic alphabet. Several Slavic languages use this system, but Westman did not write in any of them. Rather, I tried to wear the sounds of cirilic letters to form words in English when read aloud.
According to a partial translation Published by the New York PostWestman wrote: “I’m sorry to be trans,” he added: “I wish it was a girl. I just know that I can’t achieve that body with the technology we have today. In addition, I can’t pay for it.”
The post translation indicates that Westman also wrote that I wanted to “never have washed my brain to myself”, but I kept my hair “because it is practically my last vestige of being trans.”
“I can’t cut my hair now since it would be a embarrassing defeat, and it could be a worrying change of character that could make me report to me,” he wrote. “I always hinder me. I probably cut it on the day of the attack.”
According to translation, Westman also wrote: “I know I’m not a woman, but I definitely don’t feel like a man.”
Jason Evert: Westman did not receive “the mental health care you needed”
The founder of Chastity ProjectJason Evert, Male, Female, Other? A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender (Man, woman, another? A Catholic guide to understand gender), he told Ewtn News that he believes Westman “was not receiving … the mental health care I needed.”
Evert said that many people fighting with gender dysphoria often suffer from other mental health problems, such as major depressive disorder or personality limit disorder, or have suffered harassment, isolation and social anguish.
“If they tell them: ‘Well, hey, you have to change your clothes or change your name and you will feel at home in your own body’, … Young people are depriving the opportunity to live in their bodies and get the clinical intervention they really need to receive,” he said.
Evert explained that doctors in the United States mainly follow the “Dutch protocol”, which consists in “affirming” the self -affirmary transgender identity of the person and then providing minor puberty blockers, cross hormones and, finally, reallocation surgeries. However, recent studies have shown that most children exceed transgender inclinations and that Surgeries do not resolve Your mental health problems.
“It is not working,” he added. “We are contributing to a mental illness instead of really treating it. We are depriving these young people of opportunities and strategies to learn to live in their bodies. And instead we give them hormones and tell them that they can damage their body to be themselves.”
However, Evert asked for caution so as not to suggest that Westman’s gender dysphoria was the cause of the attack, emphasizing that “most people who experience gender dysphoria would never commit an atrocity like this, and that most of those who have committed shootings in schools are not identified as trans.”
“I think it is important to explain that, so as not to generate animosity among young people who may be fighting with their sense of sexual identity,” Evert said.
What we know about the attacker’s motive
Police have not identified a clear motive so far, but the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, advertisement that the agency investigates tragedy as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime against Catholics.”
Videos recorded by Westman before shooting show some anti -Catholic motivation.
The videos reveal that Westman had hit an image of Jesus Christ with the crown of thorns on the head of a human form to practice shots. He also wrote anti -Christian messages in his weapons and loaders, which included “Where is your God?” And a mockery of the words of Christ, writing “Take all of Him and eat” in a rifle.
Some of the drawings seemed satanic, including an inverted staff and an inverted cross.
Other messages showed hatred towards Jews, blacks, Hispanics, Indians and Arabs. They also included threats against US President Donald Trump.
Some of Westman’s writings highlight a fight against depression and suicidal thoughts. He also apologized to his family because of the problems that his attack would cause them, but made it clear that he did not feel remorse towards the children he planned to kill. It showed a strong affinity for mass murderers.
Westman was baptized and raised in the Catholic faith. He attended the church and the school he attacked, and his mother He previously worked in the parish as a secretary before retiring.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.
Tyler Arnold
Tyler Arnold is a reporter of the National Catholic Register. He previously worked at The Center Square and has published in various media, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative and The Federalist.