Robin Westman’s Pre‑Attack Questions About Guns, Violent Games, And A Dark Journal: What Coworkers Say And Police Found

Before the Minnesota church shooting that left two people dead and 18 injured, Robin Westman was asking security guards about firearms at their workplace and filling a private journal that police later described as a manifesto.

I am Avery Sinclair, and I am here to cut through the noise with a clear, unsentimental breakdown you can actually use.

Consider this your cold splash of reality to the face, because nothing about this story is tidy or comforting.

Here is what we know, and yes, it comes with receipts. A former coworker at a Rise medical cannabis dispensary says Westman joined the team in late March and kept mostly to themself, yet there were flags if you knew where to look. While the coworker did not personally hear gun talk during shifts, they say colleagues reported that Westman asked the on site security team about guns at some point before the attack. That nugget tracks with later findings from law enforcement, who recovered a journal authorities characterized as a manifesto, along with disturbing imagery and writings discovered after the rampage at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

At work, Westman used they and them pronouns and had a persona that seemed unremarkable to some colleagues. The same coworker describes them as kind and funny in day to day interactions, not someone who made threats or started confrontations. Yet the conversations that did surface now read like warning labels. Westman reportedly talked frequently about video games, specifically the first person shooter franchise Call of Duty. During a group chat about faith, they argued organized religion is harmful and corrupts people. Politics barely came up, though the coworker recalls Westman saying they did not like former President Donald Trump.

The journal is where the veneer shatters. After police retrieved Westman’s writings, investigators found sections fixated on school shooters, notes that included thoughts about killing President Trump, and photos of gun cartridges scrawled with racist and antisemitic messages. There was also an image of a shooting target superimposed over Jesus Christ. The detail that Westman would write constantly at work or even during social outings suddenly looks less like quirky introspection and more like premeditation. That escalation is documented in materials police recovered and cataloged as part of the ongoing investigation, which aligns with what TMZ’s reporting from the coworker described.

As for the timeline, police say Westman fired into windows at Annunciation Catholic School on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring 18 others. The shooter then died of a self inflicted gunshot wound at the scene. Authorities have not released a definitive motive. That might make you want to plug the gap with tidy narratives about video games or political posts, but let us not pretend causation pops out of a hat just because correlation looks convenient. What we do have are concrete behaviors in the lead up, from firearm inquiries with security officers to a written trail that glorified past killers and fantasized about political murder. That is not conjecture, it is evidence cataloged after the fact and cited in police briefings, while corroborated by coworker accounts reported by TMZ.

The workplace snapshot is its own contradiction. If you are looking for a cinematic villain who broadcasts their intent, you will not find one here. You get a colleague who chats about gaming, critiques organized religion, and scribbles constantly in a notebook. Then, once the smoke clears, you get a manifesto with bigotry carved into ammunition photos and a fixation on infamy. It is the whiplash that communities know far too well, and it is all laid out in the record.

There is also the social context you cannot ignore. Violence intersecting with a school and a religious setting practically guarantees national attention, and with that comes the reflex to stake a claim about what caused it. For now, investigators say they are still searching for motive. Until they say otherwise, the factual scaffolding is this, Westman inquired about guns with security at their job, Westman wrote extensively, Westman celebrated prior mass shooters in that journal, and Westman carried out a deadly attack before killing themself. Those points are supported by coworker testimony detailed by TMZ and by law enforcement statements summarizing evidence recovered after the shooting.

So, what should you watch next, besides the spin cycles? Expect law enforcement to release more from the journal, clarify the timeline, and confirm whether the gun questions at work were one off curiosity or part of a pattern. Also expect renewed debate over workplace reporting culture, gaming as a talking point that rarely survives actual data, and threat assessment protocols for schools and faith communities. When officials connect the dots on motive, you will hear it here without the sugarcoat.

Until then, keep your empathy for the victims and your skepticism for any neat little answers. The facts are ugly enough without the half baked theories.

And that is your sanity check for today, not that anyone asked.

Sources: Celebrity Storm and TMZ, Minneapolis Police Department
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