Minnesota shooting suspect faces US charges including murder
Boelter was apprehended Sunday after a weekend manhunt that had the region on edge. The FBI had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
US prosecutors charged alleged shooter Vance Boelter with two counts of murder in the deaths of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, in what officials referred to as a “murderous rampage” on Saturday morning.
Boelter, 57, was apprehended Sunday evening after a weekend manhunt that had the region on edge. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
Hortman, the Democratic leader in the state House, and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot Saturday at their home in Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. John Hoffman, a Democratic Minnesota state senator, and his wife, Yvette, were wounded in a separate shooting at their home that was also linked to the suspect, who police say arrived at the two homes posing as an officer.
In addition to the two federal counts of murder with a firearm, Boelter faces two counts of stalking and two gun counts under US law. Before the federal charges were made public, he was booked into the Hennepin County Jail and held on state murder charges with bail of $5 million.
An agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a filing that Boelter was caught with a list of more than 45 Minnesota state and federal public officials, focusing on Democrats, including Hortman.
“This is not a document that would be like a traditional manifesto that’s a treatise on all kinds of ideology and writings,” said Drew Evans, superintendent of the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Instead, he called it “a notebook with a lot of lawmakers and others that are listed,” along with “other thoughts.”
The federal charges could result in a death sentence if Boelter is convicted. State prosecutors said they intend to file charges that could bring a sentence of life without parole.
Boelter appeared briefly in federal court in St. Paul on Monday and did not enter a plea to the charges. A lawyer representing him from the Office of the Federal Defender declined to comment on the charges.
Backdrop of political violence
The shootings sparked fear in Minnesota on a day when protesters filled the streets in cities across the US to oppose Republican President Donald Trump’s administration as he held a military parade in Washington. The attacks renewed a focus on political violence that both major parties have deplored for years. Threats against national lawmakers in Washington increased to 9,000 last year from 1,700 in 2016, said US Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat.
In a message published by Klobuchar, Yvette Hoffman said she had been shot eight times and her husband, John, nine times.
“We are both incredibly lucky to be alive,” Yvette Hoffman wrote. “There is never a place for this kind of political hate.”
A man wearing a flesh-colored latex mask, blue shirt, tactical vest, badge, gun and flashlight knocked on Senator Hoffman’s front door early Saturday, identifying himself as a police officer, according to police and FBI statements filed in court. Boelter knocked on the door shouting “This is the police. Open the door,” according to the FBI.
When the Hoffmans noticed Boelter was wearing a mask, they said he wasn’t a real police officer and Senator Hoffman tried to push him out the door. Boelter shot Hoffman “repeatedly,” then shot Yvette Hoffman, according to filings.
The couple’s daughter called 911, saying that a masked man had come to the door and shot both her parents. A video surveillance recording showed a Ford SUV with “police-style lights” parked in the driveway.
Racing to Hortman’s home
Boelter drove to the home of an unidentified public official in Maple Grove, repeatedly ringing the doorbell and ordering the occupants to open the door, according to the FBI. No one was home and Boelter left. Boelter then allegedly drove to the home of another Minnesota representative in New Hope.
A local police officer, dispatched to the home to make a safety check, saw Boelter in his fake police car nearby, thinking he was a real cop, according to filings. Boelter didn’t respond to her attempts to talk with him. The officer continued to the home and Boelter left.
Local officers were also sent to State Representative Hortman’s home, where they saw Boelter shoot Hortman’s husband through the open front doorway, according to filings. The officers exchanged fire with Boelter, who ran inside the house and then fled, leaving the SUV behind. They found Hortman and her husband inside the house, shot dead.
Sometime after sunrise Boelter allegedly texted his wife and other family members: “Dad went to war last night... I don’t wanna say anymore because I don’t wanna implicate anybody.”
A search of the SUV yielded “at least three AK-47 assault rifles,” a handgun and a list of names and addresses that included other public officials, according to the police.
Authorities found Boelter crawling through the woods near his home in Sibley County, the Associated Press reported. They had earlier found a vehicle he was using abandoned in the rural area, the AP said.
