‘Please do not think you have failed as parents’

The 23-year-old Minnesota shooter reportedly penned a chilling letter before carrying out his deadly attack on dozens of school children gathered for prayer.

Robin Westman, who was born Robert Westman, told his family and friends to “pray for the victims” as he ended a letter that apologized for the “effects my actions will have on your lives.”

Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed, and 17 others, including 14 children, were injured on Wednesday when Westman opened fire on the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. Before his attack, Westman, who once attended the adjacent school where his mother had also worked until retiring in 2021, posted a now-deleted video to YouTube and showed the letter he had written.

“I don’t expect forgiveness,” the letter began.

Westman apologized for “not turning out” how his parents may have hoped, but said they “did not fail” him.

“Please do not think you have failed as parents. I was corrupted by this world and have learned to hate what life is. Life is long, life is pain. There is too much to accept, too many things to put up with just to live. I’m tired of the pain this world gives out,” he wrote.

“Please move on and continue to give your love to my brothers and sisters, and the rest of the world,” he continued. “You may not forgive me but you need to move on from me. Forget my life and the pain I’ve brought. I love you both. Thank you for everything. I’m sorry.”

BREAKING: Alleged Minneapolis shooter Robin Westman left behind a handwritten note described as part suicide letter, part “manifesto.” In it, he expressed years of depression, anger, and frustration with life, alongside a sense of exhaustion with work, bills, and the broader… pic.twitter.com/J3pKe4FGmS

— I Meme Therefore I Am (@ImMeme0) August 27, 2025

“I am sorry for forever tainting the rest of your lives,” he wrote to his siblings.

“Your careers, lives, relationships, will now all be upside down. Please don’t think about me or the things I’ve changed but move on. Please live as if I was not here,” he added. “I would tell you that I loved you all so much but that won’t help what’s to come.”

“I love you all, I will remember you,” Westman, who committed suicide by gunshot after his attack, concluded. “Pray for the victims and their families. I love you.”

Despite the video and writings, police still are not clear about a motive for Westman’s attack.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told “Today” that search warrants were executed for the church and three residences in the city, noting that no additional weapons were found, but they recovered “literally hundreds of pieces of evidence.”

“The focus remains trying to go through everything that we possibly can, following all of the evidence to its logical conclusion, trying to determine what a potential motive there actually is for this shooting,” he said. “Everything that we’ve seen so far is really a classic pathway to an active shooter.”

Senior Staff Writer
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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