Mother of Minneapolis Catholic church shooter hires lawyer 

The mother of the gunman who carried out the deadly attack at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis has hired a lawyer, according to FOX News, but it remains unclear whether she has spoken with investigators. 

Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters at an Aug. 28 news conference that detectives had not been able to reach the shooter’s mother, Mary Grace Westman.

“I know we have not been successful in talking to the shooter’s mother, yet, at this time,” O’Hara said. “But there continue to be efforts made to get that done.”

There were later reports Aug. 29, however, that Minneapolis authorities had been in contact with both of Westman’s parents, according to Daily Wire reporter Mary Margaret Olohan. 

FOX News reported Aug. 28 that Mary Grace retained criminal defense attorney Ryan Garry. 

When asked why she sought counsel, Garry said Mary Grace is “completely distraught about the situation and has no culpability but is seeking an attorney to deal with calls like this.”

Her son, 23-year-old Robert “Robin” Westman, opened fire during morning Mass at the Minneapolis church Aug. 27, killing two children and wounding 18 others, 15 of whom are children. CatholicVote initially reported 17 injured before authorities updated the number to 18. 

According to a search warrant obtained by FOX 9, the shooter was driving a van registered to his father, James Westman. James told police his son had recently ended a relationship “with a significant and/or romantic partner” and had been staying with a friend.

Responding to a reporter who asked whether police had spoken with Westman’s father, O’Hara said he could not confirm. But after a brief exchange with Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans, the police chief clarified that investigators had been in contact with the father but offered no further details.

Mary Grace worked as a parish secretary for five years at Annunciation’s Catholic School before retiring in 2021, according to the parish website and a now-hidden Facebook post.

Court records show she also filed paperwork in 2019, when her son was 17, to change his legal name from Robert to “Robin” because he “identifies as female and wants her name to reflect the identification.” 

A former school employee who spoke with NBC News said Mary Grace had expressed conflicted feelings about her son’s gender “identity.” 

“She said, ‘I don’t know how I feel about this,’” the former employee said. “I think she was struggling with her Catholic faith. … She didn’t know how she felt, but it weighed heavily on her.”

Mary Grace’s brother, Robert Heleringer, a former Republican representative in the Kentucky General Assembly, has written about the family’s Catholic upbringing. In a 2018 column for the Louisville Courier-Journal, Heleringer recalled their mother often hosted priests for dinner and led the family in prayer. 

In recent years, Heleringer has publicly expressed support for the LGBT agenda. In a 2023 op-ed, three years after his nephew legally changed his name from Robert to Robin, Heleringer criticized Republicans for what he called a “vendetta” against the “LGBTQ community.”

Westman’s parents divorced in 2013, when he was 11 years old, according to NBC News. 

As CatholicVote reported, investigators say Westman left behind a manifesto filled with anti-Catholic writings, Holocaust references, and disturbing praise for other mass shootings. Federal officials are treating the massacre as “an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology.”

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