A year after Minneapolis Catholic school shooting, documents detail swift response, little on motive

Documents released a year after the deadly shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church and school provide a detailed account of the swift and widespread response by law enforcement officers — who arrived within minutes and began triaging injured students.

But the nearly 1,500 photos and hundreds of pages cataloging witness interviews, evidence and officer accounts of the shooting at Annunciation Church and School don’t shed much light on why 23-year-old Robin Westman launched the Aug. 27, 2025, attack that killed 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski. At least 21 other children and adults were wounded before Westman died by suicide.

The documents released this week by city officials as part of a records request show dozens of officers from Minneapolis and a half dozen other state, federal and neighboring local law enforcement agencies arrived quickly — with the first on scene about three and a half minutes after the first report of a possible shooting, the dispatch records showed.

By that time, Westman, who was armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol as well as knives, smoke bombs and multiple rounds of ammunition, was already on the ground suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Read more: AP