‘Well acted and well hidden’: Gun shop owner recalls Annunciation shooter’s visit

Calm and friendly — chatty, even, with customers and staff alike — Robin Westman casually browsed rifles at a St. Louis Park gun shop just days before murdering two children and injuring 21 others at Annunciation Catholic Church.

The 23-year-old appeared knowledgeable about guns, speaking with three of the employees at Frontiersman Sports on Saturday, Aug. 23 before purchasing a pistol, shop owner Kory Krause said in an interview.

Krause provided the Minnesota Star Tribune with the security footage of Westman’s 40-minute visit. He said his staff was stunned because they didn’t detect any issues that would indicate Westman was planning to carry out a mass shooting.

“What could we have done? Did we miss anything?” Krause said at the store late last week. “Going over and over the video and everything that happened, really it just comes back to the answer of no.”

Westman drove to Annunciation Catholic Church in south Minneapolis four days later and unleashed a flurry of bullets through the stained glass windows before taking her own life. Krause said that the ammo and pistol purchased at his shop, a Brazilian-made .38 Special revolver, were not used in the shooting.

Westman used an assault-style rifle, a shotgun and a pistol in the shooting, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.

Frontiersman Sports is a short drive from a St. Louis Park house that Westman had been staying at recently, and sits in a busy stretch of road just south of Interstate 394.

As Westman browsed a little after 12:30 p.m., she looked through boxes of ammunition and examined a variety of rifles, looking down the barrel of each as she pointed them upward.

Westman then perused the glass cases of handguns, asking the employees to take some out for her.

What stood out to Krause, he said, is Westman behaved like any typical customer to all three of the employees there that day. Westman looked at all of the guns and ammunition, including hunting rifles, and ignored the tactical weapons such as AR-15s.

“[Westman] literally acted like we see with a lot of our regulars, and even those that have been in here for the first time,” Krause said.

While speaking with three different employees, Westman made comments about the pistol she bought being for defense in her home, Krause said. Westman picked “female” on the federal form to purchase a pistol that day, the store owner noted. The form “came up as a proceed almost immediately” instead of a “deny” or “delay” decision, Krause said.

Krause said his staff are experts at detecting red flags before selling someone a hand gun. The store will not deny a sale based on a buyer’s race, ethnicity, sex, age or sexual orientation, but will do so based on “behavior and actions,” he said.

“We profile hardcore on behavior, and that can be, ‘Is there a suicidal vibe?’ ‘Is there a homicidal vibe?’” Krause said. “Any kind of mental instability, that’s something that they’re very, very much watching out for.”

Investigators found numerous journal entries where Westman obsessed over school shootings, was questioning her gender identity, and wrote in one entry she was “lost in despair and disdain for this world.” The Star Tribune is referring to Westman with she/her pronouns because available legal documents list her gender as female.

Krause said he was shocked to learn what Westman wrote in her journals.

“That’s what blows us away is the fact that it was so well acted and well hidden,” Krause said.

Krause detailed how his store has assisted law enforcement in the past. Years ago, he said, the shop helped police catch a man who was making straw purchases of guns and transferring them to gang members.

He noted that the rifle and shotgun Westman used at Annunciation was purchased from two local retailers and that it’s unclear to him where the pistol used was bought.

Asked what changes he wants made to help prevent mass shooters from obtaining guns, Krause said he supports the United States adding a confidential mental health evaluation in conjunction with the background checks currently used by the federal government.