In Secret Diaries, the Church Shooter’s Plans for Mass Murder

It was Independence Day, and the plan to kill children inside Annunciation Catholic Church was coming together.

“Oh my God! I got it! I have a shotgun!” the attacker wrote in a diary entry dated July 4, adding that a high-powered rifle was next on the shopping list. “It was not too difficult at all!”

For much of this year, Robin W. Westman described in three secret diaries how she planned to commit mass murder. On Wednesday, the authorities identified her as the person who had opened fire on an all-school Mass in Minneapolis and killed two children and injured 18 other people.

It was unclear whether the attacker had shared her plans with family or friends before the shooting. Messages to parents and other family members were not returned.

The videos of the diaries were posted on Ms. Westman’s personal YouTube channel and included specific details about the shooting. They also included biographical information that The Times has corroborated. The Times captured the videos shortly after the attack, before YouTube shut down the channel.

Early indications suggest that the shooter worked to keep the plot hidden. Diary entries were written in English, but using Cyrillic letters. The entries indicated that weapons and ammunition were carefully concealed from friends, roommates and a romantic partner. A small circle of confidants appeared to have shrunk further in the last several months.