Live updates: Minneapolis Catholic school shooting, mourning for victims, investigation into suspect Robin Westman

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New details about the shooter have emerged this afternoon after yesterday’s shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Here’s what officials revealed in the last hour:

Insight into the shooter:

The shooter had “some deranged fascination” with previous mass shootings, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said. The shooter left behind “very disturbing writings” demonstrating hate toward various groups of people and “fantasized about the plans of other mass shooters,” the police chief said, adding that “the purpose of the shooter’s actions was to obtain notoriety.”
Police have not been able to identify “a specific trigger” for why the shooter decided to open fire or a “specific grievance” against the church, O’Hara said. The police chief also said authorities have not found evidence that the shooter was part of “radicalized” online groups.
“Hundreds of pages of writing” showed that the shooter was “obsessed with the idea of killing children,” said acting US Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson. He said “there is evidence of hate” when asked about FBI Director Kash Patel’s post about what investigators have found about the shooter.

Progress in investigation: While officials have conducted “dozens of interviews,” they have still not “been successful in talking to the shooter’s mother yet,” O’Hara said. Additionally, police executed four search warrants yesterday and retrieved “hundreds of pieces of evidence,” including “electronic devices that will be further searched and processed,” O’Hara said.

Rounds collected from site: Officials recovered approximately 116 rifle rounds, one live round from a handgun and three shotgun shells at the scene of the shooting, according to O’Hara. The handgun “appears to have malfunctioned as the shooter attempted to use it,” he added.

A life-saving practice: The Annunciation Church had a practice in place to lock the church doors as Mass service began, which likely saved more lives when the shooter opened fire through the windows, O’Hara said.

Information about a victim: 12-year-old Sophia Forchas, a shooting victim, “has passed through the difficult and long surgery but remains in a critical situation,” according to the parish her family attends. Separately, the total number of people injured in yesterday’s shooting jumped to 18 after officials identified an additional victim, according to the City of Minneapolis.

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