Catholic Church Shooter’s Mother Flees Fla. Residence Hours Before FBI Raid

The missing mom of Catholic church shooter Robin Westman made a panicked dash from her Florida apartment back to Minneapolis hours before it was raided by the FBI.

Mary Grace Westman, 67, left her Naples condo on Wednesday to fly back to Minnesota on the same day FBI agents arrived there looking to speak with her, The Daily Mail reported.

She was so panicked that she phoned a neighbor because she believed she had left her patio door unlocked.

The neighbor then called the Collier County Sheriff’s Office to check the three-bedroom condo on the first floor of a small block, the report states.

Mary also left her blue-gray Mini Cooper S parked under an awning, as shown in photos published by The Daily Mail.

She retired in 2021 from working at Minneapolis’s Annunciation Catholic Church, where her transgender child killed two young children and injured 17 others. She has now retained criminal defense attorney Ryan Garry, reports said.

Garry is known for his work with NFL star Colin Kaepernick in cases tied to protests after the death of George Floyd in 2020.

“She is completely distraught about the situation and has no culpability but is seeking an attorney to deal with calls like this,” Garry told Fox News.

Employees at Annunciation Catholic School, where Mary worked and where Robin opened fire on Wednesday, spoke out about the would-be killer’s childhood.

A former employee said Mary struggled to accept Robin’s decision to come out as transgender about five years ago and confided she did not know how to handle it.

“She said, ‘I don’t know how I feel about this.’ I think she was struggling with her Catholic faith,” the former employee told NBC News.

She said Robin, then known as Robert, was a lonely child who did not appear to have friends in the eighth grade.

She said Robin was disruptive in her class at Annunciation Catholic School, the same school where the attack happened.

The behavior escalated to the point that Mary was called in to speak with the principal, and she appeared nervous in those meetings.

Robin mentioned his mother numerous times in a manifesto left online before the shooting.

“I feel like my mom would have seen it coming due to my rocky past with violent threats,” Robin wrote. “The other day my stepmom said she could feel a ‘dark energy’ around me… if only you know.”

Mary was previously photographed at anti abortion protests outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in St Paul in 2005.

Police said Thursday they had not been able to reach the shooter’s mother at the time.

“We have not been successful in talking to the shooter’s mother,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.

The shooter, who changed names in 2019 after identifying as a woman, used three legally obtained guns in the attack. Police said they do not know if Robin had any gun training.

Robin graduated from the school in 2017, according to a yearbook. He also likely attended services at the church where Mary worked until her retirement.

The shooter’s family has made no public comments since Robin was identified as the attacker.

Local outlets reported that Mary was in disbelief when she learned her child was the shooter. Neighbors at her Minneapolis home, less than a mile from the church, told the New York Post the Westmans always seemed like a great family.

Stephen Jeglosky said his “jaw dropped” when he heard the news.

Robin’s father, James, worked for software company Esri, according to a now-deleted LinkedIn page, and still lived near Robin. He appeared devastated when police came to his home on Wednesday.

A neighbor saw him sitting on the sidewalk with his head in his hands as his partner comforted him.

Jim told police Robin had recently broken up with a significant partner and was staying with a friend, according to a search warrant.

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