Minneapolis shooting: What did Robin Westman identify as in first year? Yearbook in focus

A yearbook photograph shows Minnesota shooter Robin Westman during the first year he lived as a woman, years before he killed two children in a mass shooting at his former church during a school Mass in Minneapolis, US.

As per the American news website, The New York Post, the picture appeared in the 2019-2020 Southwest High School yearbook.


At that time, Westman was a junior, with short curly brown hair, a pink blouse, dangly earrings, a gold necklace, and what appeared to be a light pink lip stain.

The look was different from his senior year photo, where he had orange-dyed puffy hair and wore a blue T-shirt with purple graduation robes.

The yearbook photo was taken the same year Westman legally changed his name from Robert to Robin, a decision approved by his mother.

During high school, Westman wrote diary entries praising attacks such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, and the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand.

Before graduating from Southwest High School in 2021, Westman also studied at Saint Thomas Academy, a Catholic all-boys school with military-style training, and at Minnesota Transitions charter school, which is designed for students who face difficulties in traditional schools.

In a handwritten journal he later posted on YouTube, Westman expressed regret about transitioning, as per the New York Post report. Parts of the journal were written in a mix of Russian Cyrillic script and English.

“I only keep [the long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,” he wrote, according to Post.

Westman shot and killed Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, while they were praying in Annunciation Church in US, then killed himself.

Several others were taken to hospital.