Sources confirm ID of Annunciation Church shooter

A pistol, a rifle, a shotgun, this suspect firing all three of these things and we've been waiting to find out more information about this suspect and we're getting it.

We know this is a young man in his early 20s. Our investigative team working very hard to figure out more information. We do want to get to Eric Rasmussen right now who has been talking to his sources, working to confirm the identity of the school shooter.

Eric.

And we are here. You could see the police tape behind me on South First Avenue and East 57th Street here in Minneapolis, less than a mile from the scene of this shooting. And this behind me is the last known address of the suspected shooter and five eyewitness news from speaking with multiple sources has identified the suspect today

as 23-year-old Robin Westman. We do have a photo of this person that I want to show you now. Again, we've been working on this over the last several hours, as you might imagine. And this came in as a tip.

My photojournalist and I came out here, I would say about 90 minutes ago, still working information on that tip and found this area already taped off. Multiple agents on scene. The BCA is here. Other law enforcement is here.

And they've been coming and going for about the last 90 minutes. But again, to confirm what five eyewitness news has learned from multiple sources. The suspect here 23 year old Robin Westman. This was the last known address. I could tell you when we rolled up here again going on two hours ago we saw agents speaking with a slightly older man and a woman. I don't want to start connecting dots that we haven't been able to confirm yet but talking to neighbors in

this area, many of them telling us that it was a family here at this home behind me, and a variety of sort of accounts of interactions with that family. Some saying they were very quiet and kept to themselves. I talked to another neighbor who told me they were very friendly and they interacted with them frequently.

But as you can imagine, just a mile from the scene of this shooting, less than a mile, I mean, it's a three-minute drive. We have had people coming and going on foot in their cars, asking about this scene that has become the source of growing interest for not only neighbors,

but law enforcement that has been coming and going throughout the morning. We've seen them go in and out of that door behind me. And you can see they are still here now. I talked to one neighbor who really unaware of anything that was going on in this area this morning, saying that she came out, looked out her window and saw agents with her words,

very large guns coming and going this morning sometime after the shooting near the church and the school. So of course we're continuing to gather information out here at the scene learning all we can about the suspected shooter that again we've been able to confirm the name here Robin Westman 23 year old. My colleagues on our five investigates team are going through court records and other information.

And of course, we're going to continue to keep you updated throughout the day as this is still a very active scene again here on South First Avenue and East 57th Street in Minneapolis.

Send it back to you for now.

Investigative reporter Eric Rasmussen on the scene here. And Eric, we do want to ask you, we know that the FBI is digging into the suspect's history right now. We know you're working your sources out there. Walk us through a little bit of what's going on with this investigation. We understand they're certainly going to be checking social media accounts, looking at

his school history as they try to figure out more of this. So walk us through more of this investigation.

Sure. You know, Leah, first of all, it should be sad to note that we've had to walk through these kinds of investigations before. I've been doing this a long time all over the country and sadly have had to cover a few of these. So what we do know without speaking to the specifics of this case is that just as it is an all hands on deck for us here at Five Eyewitness News, there is just an outpouring of support in the law enforcement community.

You're talking the FBI. I know the ATF is going to be looking into ballistics and the types of firearms and ammunition that were used. And then as you just described, sort of walking this story backwards. That's the sources we can all see online. Today in this world, everything is documented. It's going through records, familial connections, were there breadcrumbs along the way that

sort of informed how we got to this terrible point today. I've been in touch with one former FBI agent that I hope to follow up with later today to learn a little bit more about exactly what they might be digging into, but it's all the things you'd be thinking of. What was the connection?

Why here? Why this school? Why this church? The acquisition of the firearms these days can be traced back with quite a bit of specificity and considering the amount of firepower we know and we think was used there's going

to be just a plethora of information that comes out of the forensic evidence in this case and that's all things that they're going to be looking at not just today but well into the future. And hey Eric there right at the scene we see a large area that's corned off with crime scene tape.

Is there just one house in this block that they're looking at or does it go all the way around?

That's a fair question, Paul. What I could tell you that might not be super clear on the screen is there's sort of a perimeter and then there's another perimeter. So I'm standing at the police tape here. This is as far as we can go. This is as far as other neighbors or people coming by to get a look can go. But as we go past me, I'm going to step out of the way here for Lee, our photographer here. You then see additional police tape wrapped around the house in question.

The house, the address that led us here when we got a tip, again, going on two hours ago. So that is clearly the focus of law enforcement out here. There may be other information that we don't know yet, but we haven't heard anything to suggest that there are multiple houses or locations or frankly even people involved here. Again, I think I said at the top of our live report here today that we saw an older man

and woman speaking with law enforcement. I don't want to try to get into their heads about how they looked emotionally, but the man was on the phone sitting on the curb. So again, to answer your question directly, the focus of law enforcement out here appears to be this one home that's behind me here on South First Avenue.

to be this one home that's behind me here on South First Avenue.

So many questions.