Wednesday's shooting at Annunciation Catholic School and church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is absolutely terrible. Two innocent children are dead, and 17 other people, most of whom were children, were injured. It's not the worst shooting we've ever seen by any stretch of the imagination, but how bad does it have to be?
Right now, there's a lot that we don't know, and there's probably a lot that we think we know that will turn out to be untrue.
The shooter has been identified and is now referred to in the past tense, which is the only good news in a situation like this, but what we know about him is disturbing enough.
Let's start with the shooter's motivations. While I won't mention his name, I will say that he identified as Trans. Further, let's just say he had an ideology that was...rough.
The trans Minneapolis terrorist mused about targeting Trump, Musk, Jews, or high profile business executives, but decided that targeting “children” would bring him “the most joy”
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 27, 2025
“I don’t want to [do] it to spread a message. I do it to please myself. I do it because I am sick” pic.twitter.com/QGM8j5zY3A
The person who appears to have carried out the shooting in Minneapolis posted a video showing their manifesto and the weapons they used
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 27, 2025
One of magazines said "Kill Donald Trump" pic.twitter.com/VU4b2ciKQJ
Another weapon had "Thank God for Breivik" on it
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 27, 2025
Anders Behring Breivik is a neo-Nazi who killed 70+ people in the 2011 Norway attacks pic.twitter.com/89QJ7qhflQ
Now, it's easy to categorize this as "leftist" since the American left has been pretty anti-Israel and openly supported the harassment of American Jews on college campuses, among other places, but this goes beyond "I don't like Israel." This is outright neo-Nazi crap, and the truth is that no matter how much some people want to make Trump into "literally Hitler," the actual Hitler acolytes don't like him all that much, from what I've seen.
We also know that the killer did, in fact, have ties to the school. His mother worked there for some time, and his uncle was a Republican lawmaker in Kentucky. A mess, I know.
Interestingly, the killer claimed to have something in common with yours truly. He said that he, like me, supports Brandon Herrera for Congress.
The shooter, identified by law enforcement as [name redacted], 23, opened fire during a children’s Mass at Annunciation Catholic School. In a since-deleted video posted to YouTube, a person believed to be [he] films their arsenal of weapons and ammunition, along with a written manifesto, and says the message is “sponsored” by “Brandon Herrera for president,” before saying they met Herrera at SHOT Show last year.
...
“He and I had a conversation, a brief conversation,” the user believed to be [the killer] says in the video, which was posted by PatriotTakes, a left-wing research account. “We agreed on a lot of things. So, y’all should vote for Brandon Herrera for president.”
Not good for Herrera, right? I'm sure Tony Gonzales will have a field day with this.
To his credit, Herrera says he doesn't remember meeting the twerp. That's not surprising since he apparently finds himself mobbed at SHOT and there's no way he'd remember everyone he meets there. Herrera also says that he's willing to talk to the police and has been trying to reach out to do just that.
He ain't running away from it, basically.
The real twist, though, is this:
Mark Oliva, a spokesperson for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which operates SHOT Show, told Fox News Digital that the shooter's name was not among the registered attendees at the 2024 event or for prior years.
Considering that Herrera is a Trump supporter, has been to the White House--and not on the tour--and has spoken favorably about the Trump administration's pro-gun efforts, it seems unlikely that a vehement anti-Trump poopstain like this killer would really support him. I can't rule out his making the video praising Herrera knowing he'd do something like this.
Plus, let's remember that SHOT isn't open to the public. I don't see how the killer could have attended unless he somehow worked in the industry. That suggests that, regardless of his claims of having met Herrera and their agreeing on most things, it's likely he's making it up for whatever reason.
And to be honest, that's about all we know beyond what you've likely seen in the media. We're probably going to have a lot of coverage of this going forward, including more of the stupid stuff people are saying. We don't necessarily want to, but that's what the current news is and that's the conversation we need to have.
That's likely to include a lot more information about the incident itself. This is some of the latest on the shooting. It's not the final word.
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