By Dave Workman
The White House on Thursday posted page-after-page of what is purportedly the diary/manifesto of Annunciation Catholic School shooter Robin Westman, formerly Robert Westman, revealing the horrifying thoughts which seemed to ultimately guide him to commit an act of deadly mayhem in Minneapolis.
The pages may be found at “X” on social media beginning with a page dated June 23, 2005 and headlined “Manifestation of Thoughts.” The opening sentence is chilling: “I have had thoughts of mass murder for a long time. I am very conflicted with writing this journal. I need to get my thoughts out without getting put on a watchlist, ha!”
A few lines later, he writes, “As of lately I have really let myself go, indulging into every mass shooting video I can find.”
And that was just on the first page. On the next page, there is this: “I remember every school I went to, I had some fantasy at some point or another of shooting up my school. Even every job.”
The White House posting consists of translations of pages Westman allegedly wrote in a mix of what he said is Cyrillic text and phonetic English, with some Russian words sprinkled in. “Terrible grammar and spelling,” he said.
“Anyway,” he wrote, “for the people that read this, if any, hopefully not abroad, LMAO. Don’t immediately freak out. I really just want a place to put my thoughts.
“I can’t talk to a therapist or family ‘cause I will be immediately reported, and put on a watchlist! Bananas!”
“I feel like I might already be on some kind of list,” he wrote, “due to my constant consumption of mass murder and violent content. I recently watched the movies Elephant, Class, Heart of America. I basically skipped the whole movies and just watched the massacre scenes.”
There are many other pages posted by the White House.
Westman wrote he was worried about his health, noting he had been “smoking and vaping.” He expressed fear of dying of cancer and in pain.
He also acknowledged, “Since I got access to internet I have been seeking out gore and violence. I have been fascinated with firearms and weapons since I was little.”
“I consider myself a pretty non-likeable person,” he added.
He made at least one reference to Nikolas Cruz, the mass shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018. He also admits to have been “creating shooting scenarios in my mind, including school, university, malls, and stores.”
In another passage, he refers to Brian Isaack Clyde, erroneously calling him “Brendan.” Clyde was shot dead after opening fire at the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse in Dallas, Texas in June 2019.
“I am embarrassed to have that be the shooting that happened on my birthday,” he exclaims. “I think his biggest mistake was attacking a courthouse…Bro wasn’t locked in…Bro wasn’t after what I want to do.”
Later, he says, “I have a deep fascination with some men in particular: Adam Lanza.”
Lanza was the disturbed man who committed the December 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
“For some reason,” he wrote, “I can’t get it out of my head . It’s such a… perfect…event. I love thinking about what it was like to be in there on that day…”
He writes of wanting people to be begging for their lives. He confesses that he had tried, and failed, to “not be a racist.” He mentions his admiration of other mass killers, including the teens who murdered several classmates at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
And he mentioned James Holmes, the Aurora, Colorado theater shooter, noting how many mass killers focus on “gun-free zones.”
“But for most public places,” he observed, “the people going in are unarmed. Holmes wanted to make sure his victims would be unarmed.”
“That’s why I and many others like schools so much,” he adds in a chilling comment.
His remarks continue, as posted by the White House. Psychologists will likely have much to say about this individual’s ramblings, but out of all of his writings one thing quickly emerges. The Minneapolis killer was, for quite some time, an increasingly disturbed individual who may, or may not, have signaled his gruesome intentions, but who apparently never landed on law enforcements’ radar. He bought a rifle, pistol and shotgun legally, which means he passed background checks in Minnesota.
What does it all mean? As Dr. John Lott, head of the Crime Prevention Research Center, noted during an interview on Bannon’s War Room following the Minneapolis shooting, “There’s not one mass public shooting this century that would have been stopped” by a background check.
What also seems clear is that pushing additional restrictive gun control laws, which penalize law-abiding citizens, is likely not going to stop the next disturbed individual, either.
Workman is editor-in-chief at TheGunMag.com.
