ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. (AP) — The shooter who killed two schoolchildren and injured 21 other people at a Catholic church in Minneapolis visited a suburban gun shop the weekend before the attack, but the owner of the store said Thursday that his staff saw no warning signs in their interactions.
Gun store owner Kory Krause told the Associated Press that Robin Westman spent around 40 minutes at Frontiersman Sports in St. Louis Park on Aug. 23 and appeared completely at ease. A surveillance video showed Westman examined several guns before ultimately buying a revolver.
Westman had already passed the required background checks and had a valid permit to purchase the gun, Krause said.
But the revolver wasn’t one of the guns Westman used in the shootings at the Church of the Annunciation on Aug. 27, when it was full of students from the affiliated Annunciation Catholic School who had gathered for their first Mass of the academic year. Investigators recovered a semiautomatic assault-style rifle, a shotgun and a different handgun at the scene, and said Westman was legally entitled to buy them. Krause said none came from his store.
Westman, 23, attended the school for eighth grade and Westman’s mother formerly worked for the parish, but investigators are still trying to determine a motive. Westman died by suicide after firing 116 rifle rounds through the church’s stained-glass windows.
