After a 43-hour manhunt and intense search, authorities arrested a Minnesota man accused of shooting two state Democratic lawmakers and their spouses. Vance Boelter, 57, now faces both federal and state charges in connection with the killings of Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark.
He is also accused of shooting Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who both survived the attack. Boelter is also accused of going to the homes of two other unnamed state lawmakers that morning “with the intent to kill them,” according to authorities.
He was apprehended Sunday night in a wooded area near where he lives, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said at a news conference. Authorities deployed hundreds of detectives and 20 SWAT teams to assist with his arrest and capture.
“This is a great example of coordination and collaboration,” Walz said. “Multiple agencies, federal, state and local coordinating together in a way to protect the public and close this hunt around.”
Boelter, an outspoken evangelical Christian who questioned American morals of sexual orientation, appeared in federal court Monday wearing an orange jumpsuit and slippers. He was unshackled while sitting next to a defense attorney in court. He will remain in custody until his next court hearing, scheduled for June 27.
Here’s what we know about the crimes he is accused of committing on June 14:
Boelter worked for a security company that advertised a fleet of “police type vehicles,” and other equipment that could potentially have aided him in appearing to be law enforcement.
A longtime friend told CNN on Saturday that Boelter was a conservative who strongly opposed abortion rights but never mentioned any anger with the lawmakers who were shot.
“It wasn’t the thing that defined him,” David Carlson said of Boelter’s religious and political beliefs.
Carlson added, “He wasn’t a hateful person. But he needed help.”
Boelter largely shied away from political posts on his publicly available social media accounts and did not discuss abortion rights in any religious speeches reviewed by CNN. In one talk he gave in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023, he appeared sharply critical of LGBTQ rights.
“There’s people, especially in America, they don’t know what sex they are, they don’t know their sexual orientation, they’re confused. The enemy has gotten so far into their mind and their soul,” he said in a sermon at a Pentecostal church in eastern DRC.
Carlson said Boelter had recently been facing financial problems, possibly due to his regular travels to Africa. The security firm had failed to find traction, Carlson said, leaving Boelter scrambling to find work, including at a funeral home.
“Problem is, he quit all his jobs to go down there,” he said. “And then he comes back and tries to find new jobs. Wasn’t working out that good.”
In federal court Monday, Boelter said he cannot afford a private attorney to represent him against the six federal charges he faces.
He said he has a part-time job earning about $540 per week and has no other sources of income. He told the judge he owns his own home and has seven cars registered in his name.
In the final hours of authorities have described as the “largest manhunt in the state’s history,” a Sibley County resident reported their trail camera captured an image of a man fitting Boelter’s description, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
A breakthrough in the search came when a vehicle believed to have been abandoned by Boelter was found in Sibley County, Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said Sunday, adding that an officer in the area also thought he saw Boelter “running into the woods.”
Law enforcement then set up a “large-scale perimeter” and deployed SWAT teams to the wooded area.
Authorities searched for roughly an hour and a half after getting the tip, Bruley said, and infrared technology and a helicopter were key in locating Boelter in the dark.
Boelter was found in a field in Green Isle – about one mile from his family home – just after 9 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.
After closing in on the suspect, law enforcement teams were able to “call him out to us,” Bruley said. Boelter attempted to evade arrest for roughly an hour, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told the Star Tribune.
Eventually, he “crawled to law enforcement teams and was placed under arrest at that point in time,” Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Col. Jeremy Geiger said.
No officers were injured during the hunt and apprehension, officials said, hailing the cooperative efforts of a host of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, ATF and US Marshals Service.
Officials found at least five firearms in an SUV registered to Boelter that he left at the Hortmans’ home, “including semi-automatic, assault-style rifles,” along with a large amount of ammunition, according to a federal criminal affidavit.
There was also a medical kit with wound treatment supplies, sleeping eye masks, as well as several notebooks filled with handwritten notes, court documents say.
“Listed among the pages of those notebooks were the names of more than 45 Minnesota state and federal public officials, including Representative Hortman, whose home address was written next to her name,” the affidavit says.
Hortman was included in several of the lists, with details about her home and family, according to the affidavit.
Boelter used websites that “allow users to search for the personal information of others, like home addresses and family member names,” according to the document.
A GPS system in the SUV he allegedly left at the Hortmans’ home had a trip history of addresses of the Hortmans’ and the Hoffmans’, as well as an elected official’s home in Maple Grove, Minnesota and the addresses of at least two other state officials, the affidavit says.
Also found in the area were pieces of a disassembled Beretta 92 9mm semiautomatic handgun – which appears to have been purchased in 2000 – a flashlight, a tactical body armor vest and a mask matching the description of the one Boelter was allegedly seen wearing, which officials describe as “hyper-realistic.”
Authorities say it’s still unclear what may have motivated Boelter.
Boelter went to Minnesota politicians’ homes in the early hours of Saturday morning “with the intent to kill them,” acting US Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph H. Thompson said Monday.
Boelter “embarked on a planned campaign of stalking and violence, designed to inflict fear, injure, and kill members of the Minnesota state legislature and their families,” the affidavit says.
Thompson said Boelter’s primary motive was to “go out and murder people.”
“They were all elected officials. They were all Democrats,” he added. “Beyond that, I think it’s just way too speculative for anyone that’s reviewed these materials to know and to say what was motivating him in terms of ideology or specific issues.”
Rep. Hortman was more than just the state House’s top Democrat, according to those who knew her. She was a volunteer who taught Sunday school, a dog lover, a lawyer who served as a Girl Scout leader and also worked at her dad’s auto parts store.
Hortman was a “formidable public servant” who will be remembered as a giant in Minnesota, Walz said.
“A lifelong resident of the northern suburbs,” Hortman, 55, grew up in Spring Lake Park and Andover, according to a previous campaign page. She graduated from Blaine High School, about 24 miles north of the Minnesota state Capitol, where she would later serve as speaker of the House.
Sophie and Colin Hortman, the children of Melissa and Mark Hortman, released a statement Monday evening, just two days after their parents were shot and killed in their home.
“We are devastated and heartbroken at the loss of our parents, Melissa and Mark. They were the bright lights at the center of our lives, and we can’t believe they are gone. Their love for us was boundless. We miss them so much,” the statement, obtained by CNN affiliate KTTC, said.
State senator Hoffman was initially elected in 2012. Currently in his fourth term, he has been a longtime advocate and leader on issues related to disability services,” according to his state senate page.
US Sen. Amy Klobuchar called him a close friend and person devoted to public service.
Hoffman, who was shot on Saturday, is out of his final surgery, Gov. Walz said Sunday and is “moving towards recovery.”
Hoffman’s family has been told that a bullet “very nearly missed” the senator’s heart and that his wife had no organs pierced, CNN affiliate KARE reporter A.J. Lagoe said Saturday.
Before taking office, Hoffman worked supporting children and families across public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
