The Minnesota gun store that sold a firearm to the 23-year-old shooter who killed two children and wounded 21 others at a Catholic school last month says they saw no reason to refuse service to the accused murderer.
“We’re still scratching our heads thinking, ‘What did we miss?’” Frontiersman Sports owner Kory Krause told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Krause said Robin Westman shopped in his suburban store for about 40 minutes before buying a handgun on Aug. 23, four days before opening fire on students and staff attending mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.
The shooter looked at several guns and raised no concerns among staff, who Krause said are trained to watch for warning signs. Westman ultimately purchased a revolver, which was not one of the firearms used in the shooting.
“This person said all the right things, they checked all the right boxes, asked all the questions,” Krause recalled.
He said Westman appeared to know a lot about firearms, passed a background check and had a valid permit to purchase guns.
Krause wasn’t in the store during Westman’s visit, but reviewed security tape and spoke with employees who said they saw no red flags as Westman shopped for the sort of firearms that are generally not “of the interest of somebody looking to do a mass shooting.”
“We’re still going over it … [thinking] ‘What could we have done?’ But it always ends with the answer of ‘nothing.’ There was just nothing there. And that’s what makes this situation so unique,” Krause said.
Authorities found a semi-automatic assault-style rifle, a shotgun and a handgun at the scene where Westman ended three lives, including her own.
Nearly 120 shots were fired through the stained glass window of The Church of Annunciation while kids were attending their first mass of the new school year. The children killed were ages 8 and 10.
Westman had attended Annunciation Catholic and graduated in 2017. Their mother also worked in the front office at the school and in the parish from 2016 to 2021.
With News Wire Services
