Do Not Name Them: The Minneapolis School Shooting
Another Community Shattered
On August 27, 2025, violence ripped through Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. During a morning Mass, a gunman opened fire through church windows, killing two children and wounding seventeen others before taking his own life.
The victims were not soldiers. They were children in their uniforms, parishioners on their knees, families simply practicing faith. Their names deserve remembrance. His does not.
Why I Refuse to Print His Name
You won’t find the shooter’s legal name here. He will be called only Bob Easmen — a contempt name, stripped of honor. That’s not an accident. It’s deliberate.
The media too often makes killers into celebrities: bold headlines, endless replays of photos, full forensic dives into their lives. That coverage feeds the next one who craves notoriety. I will not contribute to that cycle.
Easmen will not be honored here. The spotlight belongs on the families now burying their children and caring for the wounded.
The Years of Unchecked Aggression
Bob Easmen did not “snap.” His aggression grew unchecked for years. Family and friends, blinded by love or hope, failed to confront what was obvious. Anger festered, hostility deepened, and warning signs piled up.
That neglect was deadly. Two children are gone. Nineteen families are now shattered, and countless relatives and friends will carry grief that did not need to exist.
The Twisted Identity of Hate
Easmen’s trail of writings and videos shows a tortured contradiction: a self-identified transgender individual spewing neo-Nazi rhetoric and antisemitic slogans. Weapons carried phrases like “Where is your God?” Journals praised past mass shooters.
Some will try to turn that contradiction into politics. But the truth is simpler and uglier: this was not ideology, not activism, not liberation. It was rage weaponized. It was cowardice wrapped in hate.
The Online Trail
Authorities confirmed Easmen posted videos and documents more than 24 hours before the attack. They showed rifles and shotguns, hateful inscriptions, maps of the church, journals written partly in Cyrillic, and even a farewell note to family. These were not the acts of someone lost in the moment — they were the actions of someone planning to slaughter the innocent.
What Should Have Been Seen
This was preventable. The aggression was long-standing. The signs were plain. Yet Easmen was able to legally buy firearms, record his fantasies, and march into a school.
The failures here go beyond one man:
Family and friends who chose silence over intervention.
Platforms that hosted extremist content until after shots were fired.
A society that comforts itself with excuses after the fact, but rarely confronts the warning signs before the blood is spilled.
Final Word
So yes, call him Bob Easmen. Not to dignify, but to strip away the recognition he wanted. His real legacy is nothing more than pain — two children dead, seventeen wounded, families broken, a community scarred.
The names we should speak are those of the victims. The stories we should tell are those of the families. The lesson we must learn is that unchecked aggression, when ignored, becomes catastrophe.
Bob Easmen is contempt. His victims are memory. And if there is any justice in how we tell this story, it is that we refuse to make him famous.
Jewish Prayer (for Mourning & Comfort)
El Malei Rachamim (Prayer of Mercy)
God, full of compassion,
who dwells on high,
grant perfect rest beneath the sheltering wings of Your Presence,
among the holy and the pure who shine like the brightness of the heavens,
to the souls of the children taken too soon,
for whom we pray.
May their resting place be in the Garden of Eden.
May the Master of Mercy shelter them in peace forever,
and may their memory be a blessing.
Amen.
Catholic Prayer (for the Departed & Their Families)
Prayer for the Souls of the Departed
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Prayer for the Families
Lord Jesus Christ,
who wept at the tomb of your friend Lazarus,
be close with compassion to the families grieving today.
Surround them with Your love,
strengthen them with Your comfort,
and carry them through their sorrow.
May their faith not falter,
and may the peace that surpasses all understanding
guard their hearts and minds.
Amen.
