The darkest of America's regular
tragedies has returned. A school
shooting and it occurred on the very
first week of classes after the summer
holidays.
This time the attack was on a Roman
Catholic primary school in Minneapolis.
The perpetrator firing through a window
as the young pupils prayed in the
adjacent church.
>> My mom was waiting outside of the um the
church when it happened. I was scared
that I wasn't going to see her cuz I I
didn't know what was happening really. I
was just in shock.
>> For parents, this is the nightmare that
has stalked American schools for years.
>> Yeah. So, she called me hysterical. And
the first thing she said is, "Mom, I'm
safe, but something something really bad
is happening." And that's the worst call
to get as a parent.
The police chief outlined the harrowing
details.
>> During the mass, a gunman approached on
the outside on the side of the building
and began firing a rifle through the
church windows
towards the children sitting in the pews
at the mass. The sheer cruelty
and cowardice of firing into a church
full of children is absolutely
incomprehensible.
The attacker is believed to be Robin
Westman, 23 years old, and a former
pupil at the school, leaving online a
trail of deeply disturbing videos,
including a manifesto of bitterness
against the world. There was a detailed
sketch of the church and its pews,
indicating the extent of the planning,
and the asalent showed off the
ammunition and the weaponry that was to
be used. Some of it indicating that a
presidential assassination attempt might
also have been a possibility. Police say
all the guns were purchased legally
as political figures, including the
president, offered condolences and
sympathy. And with the White House flag
flying at half staff, the city's mayor
dismissed those messages as meaningless.
>> Don't just say this is about thoughts
and prayers right now. These kids were
literally praying. It was the first week
of school. they were in a church.
They should be able to go to school or
church in peace without the fear or risk
of violence. And their parents should
have the same kind of assurance.
>> This is an attack that will frighten
parents across America as other school
communities wonder if they too will one
day have to endure a similar horror.
>> And Robert joins us now. Robert, this is
obviously unfolding horror tonight.
What's the latest?
>> Well, the latest is that that death toll
remains at two. That 8-year-old and that
10year-old pupil. 17 others were
injured. 14 or 15 of those were
children. Thankfully, they are all
expected to survive. Tonight, the FBI
director Cash Patella said this will be
investigated as an act of domestic
terrorism. He went on to say this will
also uh be investigated as a hate crime
against Catholics. Of course, in in
recent years, certainly since the 2012
massacre at Sandy Hook in Connecticut,
at that primary school, there have been
many uh mass shootings at schools, at
colleges, at at places of worship. And
always, Tom, the same debate rages. You
know, how to fortify schools? Are there
sufficient mental health resources?
Should teachers be armed? That's always
a a fraught uh debate like this and
whether online uh media companies are
doing enough to identify threats like in
this case that is certain uh to be a
major argument. One thing that is off
the political agenda particularly with
this White House with this Congress and
in this political climate one thing that
is off the agenda is all talk about gun
control.
>> Okay Robert, thank you very much indeed.
And Rohit is here to talk about all
this. uh sadly always hear when we have
these attacks of various kinds. This I
think it's fair to say this is a very
confusing picture tonight. It's been
reported by the New York Times um that
this the asalent was a trans person but
at the same time there were slogans
racist anti-semitic anti-LGBT slogans.
So, you know, at the moment we're all
trying to make sense of that. The basic
truth is we don't seem to have any clear
motivation at all. Is that fair? And and
how does that
>> fit into the picture of motivations
generally?
>> Well, clearly we can't sit at this desk
and diagnose the motive. However, there
is a lot of evidence that's emerging.
Cash Patel, the FBI director, has been
trying to clear some of that up by
saying that yes, this was an act of
domestic terrorism, a hate crime
targeting Catholics. um which was of
course the case uh during mass um
shooting um through the church door
windows. However, I think a lot of
people who study forms of extremism will
suspect that this is far more
complicated than um than a single um
motive. And some of that evidence comes
from uh uh what we've seen scrolled on
some of uh the asalants firearms slogans
that as you say were uh homophobic were
um many anti-semitic slogans scrolled on
the side um of the firearms there um as
you can see but also uh tributes to mass
shooters across a wide range of um
ideological motives including Brent
Tarrant, the the Christ Church shooter
who who killed worshippers inside a
mosque in New Zealand a few years ago. I
I think what many people will say is
that this appears to be in a box that is
called mixed uh unstable and unclear
ideology. This is a sort of um growing
ideological trend which doesn't fit uh
into one label. It is perhaps um
supercharged by the influence of the
internet um sometimes by mental illness
um as well. And perhaps uh most striking
uh to many people will be one of the
slogans uh scrolled on the side of one
of those firearms which was there is no
message.