The Minneapolis school striker “obsessed with the idea of ​​killing children,” said those responsible

The investigators say that the striker who opened fire on the students while praying in a church in Minneapolis were “obsessed with the idea of ​​killing children”.

Robin Westman, who killed two children and injured 18 other people, did not seem to have a specific reason, according to the chief of the Minneapolis police, Brian O’Hara.

The striker “seemed to hate us all,” said the chief on Thursday, adding: “More than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children”.

The murdered children were identified by the family like Fletcher Merkel, eight years, and Harper Moyski, 10.

“Yesterday, a coward decided to keep us away from our eight -year -old Fletcher son,” his father told Jesse Merkel, to journalists.

“We will never be allowed to hold it, to speak to him, to play with him and to look at him grow in the wonderful young man he was on the way to become,” he said.

“Fletcher loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking and all sport to which he was allowed to play.”

“Do not forget Fletcher for the person he was and not for the act that ended his life,” he continued, stifling tears.

“Give your children a hug and he kiss today. We love you, Fletcher. You will always be with us.”

The parents of Harper Moyski, Michael Moyski and Jackie Flavin, said in a statement that their daughter “was a brilliant, joyful and deeply loved woman whose laughter, kindness and spirit touched all those who knew her”.

The family said that Harper’s little sister “loved her big sister and that she cries an unimaginable loss”.

“As a family, we are broken and words cannot capture the depth of our pain.”

They added that the family hopes that “their memory feeds action” to stop armed violence.

“No family should never have to endure this kind of pain … Change is possible, and it is necessary – so that Harper’s story does not yet become another in a long line of tragedies.”

Until now, officials have published some details on the suspect’s history, but say that she has already attended the Church school and had a mother who had worked there.

The 23 -year -old suspect would have approached the side of the Annunciation church, which also houses a school, and pulled dozens of blows through the windows using three firearms. The police also found a smoked bomb on the scene.

Witnesses have described having seen children bleeding as they run away from the church, begging the help of foreigners.

At a press conference Thursday, the acting American prosecutor general for Minnesota Joseph Thompson said that “the shooter expressed his hatred towards many groups, including the Jewish community and to President Trump”.

The striker, who died on the scene of a self-inflicted ball injury, left a note, said officials, but they added that a final reason could never be known.

“I will not dignify the attacker’s words by repeating them, they are horrible and vile,” said Mr. Thompson.

The name of Westman was legally changed from Robert to Robin in 2020, with the judge writing: “The minor child identifies himself as a woman”. However, some federal and police officials called Westman as a man when they discuss the attack.

Chef O’Hara told journalists that the media should stop using the killer’s name, because “the goal of the shooter’s actions was to obtain notoriety”.

He added that she, “like so many other mass shooters that we have seen too often in this country and in the world, had a disturbed fascination for previous mass fire”.

US officials have warned for years that mass fire can lead to copying murders, while killers seek to become famous thanks to their heinous crimes.

Several major press organizations have the policy of not identifying mass killers.

FBI director Kash Patel described the attack as “an act of domestic terrorism motivated by an ideology filled with hatred”.

In an article on X, Patel said that the attacker “had left several anti-Catholic and anti-religious” references written on firearms and in notes discovered by the investigators.

“The subject expressed his hatred and violence against the Jewish people, writing Israel must fall”, “free Palestine” and using an explicit language linked to the Holocaust, “he wrote.

The killer “also” wrote an explicit call to violence against President Trump on a firearm magazine “.

During their press conference, officials confirmed that the attacker had already attended school. Her mother, Mary Grace Westman, previously worked in school and has so far not responded to attempts to apply the laws to contact her.

They also confirmed that three residences associated with the striker, who was from Suburban Minneapolis, were searched by the police.

They said the church had locked its doors before starting its mass service, probably saving many lives.

The officials added that the weapons used in the attack were all legally bought, that the killer did not appear on any surveillance list of the government, and that the police did not know any diagnosis or treatment of mental health they received.

Witnesses and relatives of the victims who spoke to the BBC described tearing scenes of violence.

Patrick Scallen, who lives near the church, said that he had seen three children fleeing the building – one of them a girl with a head injury.

“She kept saying:” Please, stretch my hand, don’t leave me “, and I said that I was not going anywhere.”

Vincent Francoual, whose 11 -year -old daughter Chloé was in the church when the shooting had taken place, said he had tried not to panic after learning the news.

He called “sick” that children in the United States are trained to prepare for mass fire.

“We live in a country where we form children what to do. And she did what she had to do,” he said.

“Here, it’s a model. It’s no longer a bizarre accident,” he said about school fire in the United States.

“I told my wife that every morning when we drop our children, we don’t know if she would be safe.”

Mr. Francoual, from France, said that Chloé was afraid of returning to school or church.

In the wake of the attack, several legislators, including the mayor of Minneapolis, called on the State to implement a ban on assault weapons.

“There is no reason for someone to be able to get 30 shots before even recharging,” said mayor Jacob Frey, also calling for the ban on large capacity ammunition magazines.

“We are not talking about your father’s shotgun here. We are talking about firearms that are designed to unravel the armor and kill people.”