By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON (AA) - FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday that investigators have collected evidence that indicates the mass shooting at a Catholic Church in the state of Minnesota was an act of "domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology."
It is unclear which ideology the FBI chief was referring to, but he said the suspect "left multiple anti-Catholic, anti-religious references both in his manifesto and written on his firearms," and indicated that Robin Westman "expressed hatred and violence toward Jewish people, writing 'Israel must fall,' 'Free Palestine,' and using explicit language related to the Holocaust."
"He wrote a (sic) an explicit call for violence against President Trump on a firearm magazine The @fbi investigation is still ongoing," Patel wrote on American social media platform X. "We will employ all of our counter-terror tools to ensure this is fully investigated and deterred. And as promised, we will continue to update when able."
Two young children were killed in the shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minnesota early Wednesday, according to law enforcement. A total of 17 others, including 14 children, were injured. The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the rear of the church.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed Thursday that Westman attended the school and church where he "clearly intended to terrorize those children, the members of the school, those parishioners who were present there, and their families, and really the community at large."
"There's obviously a connection to the church, to the school, but as far as a triggering event, or what specifically would have been a motive, we have not been able to identify that," he said.