Minneapolis shooting suspect attended Annunciation Catholic School, motive under investigation
Dozens of first responders crowd the street in front of Annunciation Catholic Church that was the scene of a shooting that killed two children and wounded seventeen other people on Wednesday, August 27, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minn. (Renee Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)
(MINNEAPOLIS) — As police search for a motive in the deadly mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School, Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP obtained a yearbook entry from the school describing suspected shooter Robin Westman as a member of the class of 2017.
“We believe he had been a student here,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told KSTP, adding, “His mom had worked here in the past.”
Westman, 23, who was born Robert Westman, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. Driver’s license information reviewed by ABC News described Westman as a female, born on June 17, 2002. A name change application for a minor born on the same date, June 17, 2002, was approved by a district court in Minnesota in 2020, changing the name of a Robert Westman to Robin Westman, explaining the minor child “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
Two children — an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old — were killed and 17 people were injured when the shooter opened fire through the windows of the Minneapolis school’s church on Wednesday morning.
Fourteen of the injured victims were children ages 6 to 15, and the three adults who were shot were parishioners in their 80s, police said.
All injured victims are expected to survive and some victims have already been released from the hospital, O’Hara said late Wednesday.
Officers recovered three guns — one rifle, one shotgun and one handgun — at the scene, all of which are believed to have been fired in the attack, police said. All were purchased legally by Westman, police said.
The suspect had no criminal history, police added.
As Minneapolis mourns, Mayor Jacob Frey is stressing the need for gun control, telling ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” “How many times have you heard politicians talk of an ‘unspeakable tragedy’? And yet this kind of thing happens again and again.”
“Prayers, thoughts, they are certainly welcomed, but they are not enough,” Frey said. “There needs to be change so that we don’t have another mayor, in another month-and-a half, talking about a tragedy that happened in their city.”
O’Hara said additional police patrols will be provided as children return to school across the Minneapolis area.
ABC News’ Mariama Jalloh, Pierre Thomas, Jack Date, Luke Barr, Aaron Katersky, Sasha Pezenik and Michael Pappano contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK)– The death toll has climbed to seven in the wake of heavy rains and devastating flash flooding in West Virginia, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said on Tuesday.
Two people were unaccounted for as of Monday, according to the governor.
“West Virginia has been hit very, very hard,” Morrisey said.
A state of emergency is in effect and the West Virginia National Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials are on the ground in Marion County, he said.
Flash flooding hit the city of Wheeling and the towns of Triadelphia and Valley Grove. Roughly 3 to 4 inches of rain fell in the area in a short period of time, prompting significant flash flooding along US 40 (National Road), Middle Wheeling Creek, Little Wheeling Creek and various runs and streams through Ohio County.
On Sunday, a residential building in the city of Fairmont, in Marion County, partially collapsed, prompting the emergency declaration, according to the governor.
Footage from the scene showed water rushing out of the severely damaged structure as emergency crews responded to the scene.
Displaced residents are now being housed at Fairmont State University, officials said.
The cause of the collapse has not been determined, the governor said Monday.
Officials said they are monitoring the situation as more rain is in the forecast over the next few days.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead. Via Flickr
(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court has ruled that most of President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs are unlawful, potentially dealing a significant blow to the president’s effort to reshape the country’s trade policy unilaterally.
In a 7-4 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected Trump’s authority to carry out most of his tariffs, agreeing with the lower court that Trump’s actions were “invalid as contrary to law.” However, the court delayed the impact of its decision through mid-October to allow the Trump administration to appeal to the Supreme Court, as the tariffs remain in effect.
“Because we agree that [International Emergency Economic Powers Act’s] grant of presidential authority to ‘regulate’ imports does not authorize the tariffs imposed by the Executive Orders, we affirm,” the majority wrote.
The decision in effect tees up one of the most consequential legal questions for the Supreme Court about the scope of the president’s authority on trade policy.
After Oct. 14, the court will return the case to the lower court to decide how the Supreme Court’s recent decision limiting nationwide injunctions affects the decision.
Trump reacts to decision In a post on his social media platform Friday evening, Trump rebuked the appeals court’s decision, warning that a court order blocking the tariffs “would literally destroy the United States of America.”
Previewing the legal challenge expected in the coming weeks, Trump called on the Supreme Court to rule that he has the power to impose tariffs unilaterally.
“Now, with the help of the United States Supreme Court, we will use them to the benefit of our Nation, and Make America Rich, Strong, and Powerful Again! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump wrote.
What the decision says In its decision Friday, the appeals court determined that only Congress, not the president alone, has the authority to impose tariffs, setting up a high-profile legal question for the Supreme Court regarding the scope of the president’s power.
The decision centers on whether the authority to “regulate” imports, included in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, means the president can issue tariffs on his own.
Seven of the 11 judges said that the rarely used law does not give Trump the power to implement either his “reciprocal” tariffs or the “trafficking” tariffs imposed on Canada, Mexico and China aimed at stopping the flow of fentanyl across U.S. borders, writing that “tariffs are a core Congressional power.”
“We discern no clear congressional authorization by IEEPA for tariffs of the magnitude of the Reciprocal Tariffs and Trafficking Tariffs,” the majority wrote. “Given these considerations, we conclude Congress, in enacting IEEPA, did not give the President wide-ranging authority to impose tariffs of the nature of the Trafficking and Reciprocal Tariffs simply by the use of the term ‘regulate . . . importation.'”
A subset of four judges from the majority took the decision even further, determining that IEEPA does not give Trump the power to issue any tariffs, not just the two types of tariffs in question.
“The Government’s interpretation of IEEPA would be a functionally limitless delegation of Congressional taxation authority,” they wrote.
In a minority opinion, four other judges disagreed, suggesting Trump’s declaration of a national emergency is enough of an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to justify the tariffs.
“IEEPA’s language, as confirmed by its history, authorizes tariffs to regulate importation,” the judges wrote.
How the case came about A group of small businesses and a coalition of states sued to block the tariffs earlier this year, arguing that President Trump had overstepped his authority under the rarely used International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) when he issued a flurry of tariffs in April.
The following month, the New York-based Court of International Trade declared the tariffs were unlawful and encroached on Congress’s authority to regulate trade. The Trump administration quickly appealed the decision, which was stayed as the legal process played out.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments on the tariffs in July, during which time the panel of judges appeared skeptical that Trump could justify the tariffs based on a national emergency.
The judges noted that the text of the IEEPA never explicitly mentions “tariffs” and that no other president has attempted to utilize the law in the same manner as Trump has.
“One of the major concerns I have is that IEEPA doesn’t mention tariffs anywhere,” one judge remarked during the arguments in June. “Here, IEEPA doesn’t even say tariffs — doesn’t even mention it.”
Ahead of Friday’s decision, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer preemptively asked the court to stay their decision to prevent “serious harms” to ongoing negotiations and the country’s trade policy.
Trump administration officials had previously warned that losing the ability to issue tariffs would “lead to dangerous diplomatic embarrassment,” threaten ongoing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and “threaten broader U.S. strategic interests at home and abroad.”
United Cajun Navy’s Ryan Logue, a resident of Kerrville, Texas, is determined to find every last victim, he told ABC News. ABC News
(KERRVILLE, Texas) — A week after catastrophic flooding claimed at least 121 lives in Texas Hill Country, search efforts continue with volunteers working tirelessly to find victims and bring closure to families.
The United Cajun Navy, a volunteer organization that’s been coordinating disaster response since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, remains on the ground in Kerr County, where at least 96 people, including 36 children, lost their lives after the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in less than an hour early on July 4.
“At the beginning, it was mostly ground crews on foot, checking everything we could visually see,” Ryan Logue, the Texas incident commander for the United Cajun Navy, told ABC News on Friday. “Now we’ve got canine crews, search and rescue, and swim teams deployed.”
However, the recovery effort faces mounting challenges. As days pass, conditions on the ground are becoming more difficult. Logue explained that mud and silt washed down by the floodwaters are now “becoming almost like concrete” as they dry, making it harder for search teams to dig through debris.
For Logue, this mission hits close to home. As a Kerrville local, he’s not just leading the search effort — he’s helping rebuild his own community.
“This is my backyard. The place on the river that I’m at right now is where I take my daughter swimming,” Logue said. “I’m not going anywhere until we find every last victim and provide closure to this community.”
The dual role of helper and community member fuels Logue’s determination, he noted.
“The fire inside of me to help my community burns so strong,” he said, recounting how locals have embraced him with hugs and gratitude when they spot him wearing his United Cajun Navy shirt.
With President Donald Trump visiting the devastated region with First Lady Melania Trump on Friday, questions continue to mount about the local and federal response to the disaster.
Despite this, the focus remains clear for volunteers like Logue: bringing closure to families still waiting for news of their loved ones.
“This isn’t just a disaster you’re deployed to,” Logue said. “You have to process what’s going on because this is my backyard. But I know I have to put on my game face and make sure we’re doing everything we can to find anybody who was impacted by this.”
