Robin Westman brought many more rounds of ammunition than were unleashed in a deadly barrage at Annunciation Church and School before dying by suicide, according to a newly filed search warrant.
The disclosure came in an affidavit filed Thursday in Hennepin County District Court by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that details the substantial amount of evidence collected inside and outside the church.
Westman, 23, fired through stained-glass windows Wednesday morning, killing two students and wounding 18 other worshippers, including 15 children and three adults, at a Catholic Mass filled with students. The wounded are expected to survive, officials said.
The filing incudes a police property report time-stamped 28 hours after the shooting began that details 158 pieces of evidence, including more than 100 discharged cartridge cases strewn on the ground outside the east and south sides of the church.
It also includes the substantial number of unfired rounds law enforcement collected at the scene, along with three guns Westman brought to the Diamond Lake neighborhood school where Westman’s mother worked and Westman once attended. Minneapolis police say the rifle, pistol and shotgun used in the siege were recently legally purchased.
Police gathered four magazines that were empty but another six with an unspecified quantity of live cartridges, the filing noted. In Westman’s belt pouch were live shells for the shotgun brought along. A pistol at the scene held a live round, according to the court document.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara specified Thursday that officers recovered 116 spent rifle rounds from the church grounds, along with three shotgun shells and a handgun that appears to have jammed during the attack.
The rough tally by police shows Westman had enough ammunition to kill and injure many more people and supports O’Hara’s assessment that the death toll could have been higher if the church had not been locked, a routine practice there when Mass begins.
