The State of Minnesota Responded to Suicidal School Shooter and Won’t Release Vital Evidence
Republished with permission from AbleChild
In response to the senseless shooting incident at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, MN, Vice President JD Vance said “we really do have, I think, a mental health crisis in the United States of America,” and the Vice President explained “we take more psychiatric medication than any other nation on earth, and I think it’s time for us to start asking some very hard questions about the root causes of this violence.”
The Vice President is correct, it is time to start asking “some very hard questions,” but it is also time for legislation that forces some very direct answers. Like all the mass shootings that occur in the US, whether the shooter had received mental health services and prescription drugs is shielded like a state secret. Why? The public is the first to know the exact caliber of the ammunition and make and model of the alleged weapon but anything dealing with the shooter’s mental illness details are withheld.
While specifics of Robert/Robin Westman’s mental health history have not been provided, there are far too many clues that lead to a serious mental health background and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s remark that there wasn’t any information “indicating that the school shooter suffered from any type of mental illness that would preclude her from obtaining pistols or semiautomatic weapons…” is a deliberate diversion from a truthful answer.
The public needs to know the shooter’s mental health background, not whether the mental health background would preclude the purchase of a firearm. It’s almost a cheeky response by the Chief of Police, a subtle insult that the public would fall for such a disingenuous answer. So, let’s do what the Vice President suggests. Let’s ask the question. Did Robert/Robin Westman ever receive mental health treatment?
What we know about Westman’s background is this. Robert attended Annunciation Catholic School through the eighth grade and had behavioral problems known to his family and the school. In 2016 police were dispatched to the Westman home for a welfare check responding to a “criminal offense.” Again, in 2018, police were back at the Westman home for mental health issues. Although the 2018 report is severely redacted, AbleChild, through a FOIA request, did receive a copy of the 2018 report which states the purpose of the check by the Eagan Police Department “assisted Mendota Heights with a check welfare of a juvenile.”
The redacted report also reveals in the narrative that “on 01/26/18 at approximately 1808 hours, I was dispatched to 605 Crane Creek Lane in Eagan in reference to a check welfare. Dispatch received a request from Mendota Heights Police to check welfare of a possible suicidal party at the address.”
A “Suicidal party?” A ‘juvenile” “suicidal party?” It is believed that the only juvenile living at home at the time would have been 16-year-old Robert, aka Robin. But the severely redacted police report of the suicidal incident only adds to the list of unanswered questions.
According to Minnesota divorce records, Mary Grace and James Allen Westman (Robert’s parents) filed for divorce six years earlier in 2012 when Robert was ten years old. Fast forward to 2018 “suicidal party” and according to Officer Kirchgatter of the Eagan Police, another man, sixty-five-year-old Jeffrey Lynn Thompson, was reported to be at the Westman home at the time of the “juvenile” mental health meltdown.
A boyfriend of Mary Grace? Perhaps, but has Captain O’Hara interviewed Thompson about this welfare check and what precipitated the call for mental health intervention of what juvenile? No. In fact, despite having the information at hand, Captain O’Hara didn’t bother to provide any of these details to the public. Why? Instead of everyone guessing what caused the killing rampage, this is precisely the kind of information that may provide some clues into why Robert/Robin later took the lives of two innocent children and wounded 18 others.
It also is of interest that in 2012 when Mary Grace and James Westman filed for divorce, the case type (19HA-FA-12-935) is listed as a divorce and “Dissolution Without Child.” This is not possible as juvenile Robert was only ten years old in 2012. This document has since been removed from the Minnesota Court Records Online website. These parents, just like the parents of alleged shooter, Thomas Crooks, have not cooperated and have escaped any inquiry by the press to answer any of these simple mental health questions.
There is little doubt that Robert and perhaps others in the Westman family were receiving mental health intervention. The question is what other state agencies are involved in the mental health treatment provided to shooter, Robert/Robin? What mental health treatment did Robert receive and when did it begin. Most importantly, what prescription psychiatric drugs had Robert been taking and for how long? According to the facts, the State of Minnesota clearly is implicated in what led to this senseless killing when the Eagan Police responded to a suicide attempt and won’t disclose what occurred. Indeed, federal funding grants could be involved. Recall, the Florida mass shooter, Elijah Ikner, a grant recipient of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA)—funding meant to reduce gun violence and invest in more mental health.
Despite the obvious efforts to withhold mental health information, it is precisely the withholding of the mental health data has become the first indicator that mental health “treatment” occurred. This isn’t the public’s first school/mass shooting and given enough time, the drug data always comes out. And, while the Vice President is interested in asking the “hard questions,” how about starting with why the mental health data is always withheld. Isn’t it time to take a hard stand and ask lawmakers to sponsor legislation that requires the release of mental health data and prescription drug use in criminal offenses? No laws can be passed to effectively stop these killings if the data isn’t released. Afterall, without the data the Vice President’s words just become empty platitudes. The government cannot continue to give the mental health industry billions of taxpayer dollars and then stand in the way of collecting the vital data that the taxpayers are demanding to determine if the mental health “treatments” themselves are a contributing factor in the deaths associated with these mass killings.
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AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.
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