Minnesota leaders are facing mounting criticism after a string of decisions that left Catholic schools without security funding and coincided with a deadly attack on a Minneapolis parish.
Despite a record state budget surplus, Gov. Tim Walz (D) previously denied requests from the Minnesota Catholic Conference to extend security resources to private and religious schools.
On Wednesday, a trans-identifying shooter stormed Annunciation Catholic School during Mass, killing two children and injuring more than a dozen others.
The shooter, 23-year-old Robert “Robin” Westman, a biological male who began identifying as female at 17, opened fire inside the church during morning Mass.
Armed with multiple weapons, Westman fired through windows while children were seated in pews. Two parishioners were killed, and at least 17 others were injured before the assailant took his own life.
Federal authorities are investigating the incident as both a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism.
Investigators discovered a manifesto and images of firearms on the shooter’s YouTube channel, including anti-Christian and anti-Trump messages such as “Kill Donald Trump.”
The Minnesota Catholic Conference, representing the state’s six dioceses, had twice asked Walz for modest security funding.
Breitbart reports that in 2023, the group sought inclusion in a