The perpetrator of the August 27 Annunciation Catholic School shooting in Minneapolis was 23-year-old Robin Westman (born Robert Westman), a transgender individual. According to ABC News, driver’s license records listed Westman as female, and a 2020 Minnesota district court order approved a name change from Robert to Robin after noting the minor “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
This was not the first transgender shooter, and not the first time a Christian school was targeted. The 2023 Nashville school shooting occurred on March 27 at The Covenant School. The shooter was identified as Aiden Hale (previously referred to by police as Audrey Elizabeth Hale), a 28-year-old former student of the school. Police initially identified the shooter as a woman but later confirmed Hale was transgender. Six people were killed in the attack, including three children, all nine years old.
The 2022 Colorado Springs Club Q shooting was another example. Because the nightclub catered to an LGBTQ audience, many initially assumed the attacker would be a white supremacist. Instead, the perpetrator was Anderson Lee Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. The attack left five people dead and 19 others injured.
Additional incidents include the 2018 Aberdeen, Maryland, Rite Aid shooting, where 26-year-old Snochia Moseley, a transgender individual transitioning from female to male, killed three people and wounded three others at a distribution center before taking her own life.
In 2019, at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado, 16-year-old Alec McKinney (born Maya McKinney), a transgender boy, carried out a shooting with an accomplice that left one person dead and eight others injured. McKinney told police he specifically targeted students who mocked his gender identity and admitted he had been planning the attack for weeks.
One of the most bizarre and far-reaching murder rings in recent years is the Vegan Transgender Extremist Zizian Cult, a group of about 30 members, mostly young transgender women, linked to at least six murders and labeled as extremists by U.S. law enforcement. The group was led by Jack “Ziz” LaSota, a 34-year-old transgender woman with a computer science degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks who once interned at NASA.
Writing under the name “Ziz,” LaSota published disturbing theories claiming that each brain hemisphere has a separate gender identity and that these identities often desire to kill one another.
Members practiced “unihemispheric sleep,” attempting to sleep with one eye open to prevent one hemisphere from “destroying” the other, a philosophy that has reportedly contributed to suicides within the cult.
Several members became key figures in violent crimes. Michelle Zajko, 32, was tied to the murder of her parents, Richard and Rita Zajko, who were shot to death in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, on December 31, 2022. Daniel Blank, 26, Zajko’s Vermont housemate who has been described as having Asperger’s syndrome, was also involved. In November 2022 in Vallejo, California, Zizian members attacked an 80-year-old landlord, impaling him with a sword and blinding him in one eye; the victim fatally shot one assailant in self-defense.
The same landlord, Curtis Lind, was later stabbed to death on January 17, 2025, with Maximilian Snyder charged in the killing. Just days later, on January 20 in Coventry, Vermont, U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland, 44, was killed during a shootout after a traffic stop. Zizian member Teresa Youngblut, 21, is accused of opening fire, while another member, Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt, was also killed in the exchange.
The wave of violence culminated on February 16, 2025, when LaSota, Zajko, and Blank were arrested in Frostburg, Maryland. They were found trespassing on private property while dressed in black and carrying weapons. LaSota, described by prosecutors as the leader of the extremist Zizians, was ordered held without bail.
One of the most disturbing prevented cases involved Elizabeth Ballesteros West, formerly Francisco Frank Paramo, a 56-year-old transgender woman from Cottage Grove, Oregon. West was arrested by the FBI in January 2024 for allegedly plotting a mass shooting at her workplace over claims of “transphobia.” Federal prosecutors charged her with interstate threatening communications.
The investigation began after West posted alarming messages on a transgender support Facebook page on September 26, 2023. She wrote that she was “at the end of my rope,” feared losing her job, and declared she had “no alternative” after being bullied by “transphobic a**holes.” She added, “I’ll probably have to go out in a blaze of glory.” Beyond her workplace, West expressed violent intentions toward Jews and Black people and openly embraced neo-Nazi ideology.
When the FBI searched her property, agents discovered a massive weapons cache: 11 handguns, 16 rifles, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, gun accessories, dozens of violent drawings, and a notebook titled Black Shadow Journal. According to an FBI informant, West had a history of reckless behavior, once playing Russian roulette during Christmas 2022 while in a dissociative state. She had also been arrested in 1993 for placing a shotgun in her father’s mouth and pulling the trigger, though the case was later dropped.
West’s personal history revealed long-standing mental health struggles, including diagnoses of bipolar disorder, dissociative identity disorder, and PTSD. The FBI also tied her to white supremacist activity, noting she and her boyfriend had attended neo-Nazi rallies in Washington state and even hosted participants at their home. Her social media was filled with memes and propaganda glorifying Hitler, promoting racial violence, and threatening mass attacks.
During initial interviews, West downplayed the threats, claiming she was only projecting suicidal thoughts while struggling with the stress of gender transition. This raises broader concerns about undiagnosed mental health issues and the possible effects of hormone use.
A research report published in PubMed Central found that approximately 58 percent of transgender patients had at least one DSM-5 diagnosis, compared with 13.6 percent of cisgender patients. Similarly, a study published in ScienceDirect concluded that transgender people are about six times more likely than the general population to suffer from mood and anxiety disorders, findings echoed in the American Journal of Psychiatry’s review of treatment utilization.
Recent surveys reinforce this troubling pattern. The 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People reported that 71 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth experienced anxiety symptoms, while 44.4 percent reported recent suicidal ideation and nearly 7 percent admitted to a recent suicide attempt.
