On August 27, Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis became the site of horror. A 23-year-old former student, Robin Westman, opened fire during a morning Mass attended by children, parents, and clergy. Two children were killed and 17 others injured before Westman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators quickly began treating the massacre as both domestic terrorism and a hate crime. The weapons carried by the shooter were scrawled with violent slogans—antisemitic slurs, anti-Catholic taunts, threats against India, calls to assassinate Donald Trump, and Holocaust denial graffiti.It was one of the deadliest attacks on a Catholic institution in America, and it has left a community reeling. Parents mourn, law enforcement combs through evidence, and clergy face the trauma of leading a school that has turned into a crime scene.
Candace Owens Claim
Into this grief stepped Candace Owens. Within hours of the attack, she posted on social media that the government was behind the shooting. “Each shooting is more traumatizing than the last,” she wrote, “because the goal is to scare us into compliance. It is the tried and true strategy of 9/11 and the Manson murders—both CIA operations. Do not ever agree to hand over your 2nd amendment rights.”For Owens, the Minneapolis massacre was not an act of hate by a lone gunman but a stage-managed “psy-op” designed to frighten Americans into giving up their constitutional rights.
What We Know
The facts point in the opposite direction. Investigators have identified Robin Westman as the sole attacker. The writings on the weapons, the hate-filled online posts, and the personal history of the suspect reveal a toxic stew of extremism and online radicalisation—not a government script. No evidence has surfaced to suggest official involvement.To frame this massacre as a government operation not only distracts from the truth but also undermines the victims’ humanity. Two children are dead. Families are shattered. Communities are broken. The suggestion that their suffering is staged for political theatre is cruel, baseless, and corrosive.Her History of Fake NewsOwens’s Minneapolis claim is not an isolated lapse—it fits into a broader career of amplifying conspiracies and misinformation. She has:Targeted Brigitte Macron: Owens promoted the claim that the French First Lady was secretly born male. The Macrons have since launched a defamation lawsuit against her.Flirted with Holocaust tropes: She has downplayed Nazi medical atrocities and repeated antisemitic themes under the guise of “questioning history.”Denied science: Owens has dismissed climate change as a hoax and mocked scientific consensus as a “pagan faith.”Traded in fringe myths: From linking mass tragedies to CIA plots to amplifying unverified “false flag” claims, she has consistently found oxygen in the darkest corners of the internet.This pattern reveals a consistent strategy: outrage as a business model. For Owens, each conspiracy is an opportunity to build influence, deepen loyalty among her followers, and position herself as the lone truth-teller against a corrupt establishment.The Danger of Her NarrativeConspiracy theories thrive after mass shootings because they offer simple answers to unbearable pain. But they are dangerous. They rob victims of dignity, erode trust in institutions, and stall real policy debates. In Minneapolis, the real story is about extremism, hate, and gun access—not CIA psy-ops. Owens’s narrative flips tragedy into theatre, replacing empathy with opportunism.Final WordThe Minneapolis shooting was a hate crime carried out by one person. Candace Owens wants the public to believe it was something else entirely—a government-engineered production. Her history shows why: fake news is her currency, outrage is her brand. But in this case, the stakes are measured in children’s lives.The victims deserve remembrance. The community deserves healing. And the truth deserves to be louder than the conspiracy.