The suspect in the shooting of 2 Minnesota lawmakers had a 'hit list' of 45 officials | 2025-06-22 15:30:27 (Visits: 36 Times) |  | | Updated June 16, 20253:35 PM ET
By Meg Anderson,Rachel Treisman,Russell Lewis
This booking photo provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office shows Vance Boelter in Green Isle, Minn., early Monday morning — shortly after a two-day manhunt ended in his capture and arrest.Hennepin County Sheriff's Office/AP
MINNEAPOLIS — Authorities in Minnesota said Monday that the man arrested in a Saturday attack that killed one state lawmaker and left another wounded had a "hit list" of 45 elected officials — all Democrats."Political assassinations are rare. They strike at the very core of our democracy," said acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson for the district of Minnesota. The details of what happened, he said, are "even worse. They are truly chilling. His crimes are the stuff of nightmares."Vance Boelter, 57, was apprehended on Sunday night after what Brooklyn Park police Chief Mark Bruley called "the largest manhunt in state history."Thompson says the suspect went to the homes of four Minnesota state lawmakers "with the intent to kill them." He said Boelter was disguised as a police officer, drove a black SUV with emergency lights turned on, and had a license plate that said "police." He carried a 9mm handgun, wore a black tactical vest and was disguised with a realistic silicone mask. Thompson says the suspect banged on the lawmakers' front doors in the middle of the night."This was a targeted attack against individuals who answered the call to public service," said FBI special agent in charge Alvin Winston. "Let me say this clearly: political violence has no place in this country."Authorities found "voluminous writings" in the suspect's vehicle and at his home. They theorize he'd been planning and researching lawmakers for several months. Thompson says, as of now, it's unclear why the alleged gunman carried out the attacks.Boelter has been charged with state and federal charges of murder, attempted murder and other crimes. He's being held in federal custody.Bruley said at a Sunday night press conference that officers had been searching the area of Boelter's property near the town of Green Isle when one thought they saw him "running into the woods." After about an hour and a half, with the help of multiple SWAT teams and a State Patrol helicopter, authorities closed in on him and were "able to call him out to us.""Where he was ultimately taken into custody was in a field," Bruley said, adding that Boelter was armed at the time.Boelter was the subject of a days-long man-hunt involving hundreds of local, state and federal law enforcement after the shocking deaths of Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. Officials say the couple were shot and killed in their Brooklyn Park, Minn., home by a man impersonating a police officer.This combo from photos provided by Minnesota Legislature shows from left, Senator John A. Hoffman and Rep. Melissa Hortman. (Minnesota Legislature via AP)Nationa.Suspect named in targeted shootings of Minnesota lawmakers.Earlier that same morning, Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot at their home in nearby Champlin, Minn. In a statement shared with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Sunday night, Yvette said John "is enduring many surgeries right now and is closer every hour to being out of the woods.""He took 9 bullet hits," she wrote. "I took 8 and we are both incredibly lucky to be alive."Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension superintendent Drew Evans told reporters on Sunday that Boelter had been charged with the Hortmans' murders as well as the shooting of the Hoffmans. He said the FBI and and U.S. Attorney's Office are reviewing whether to bring additional federal charges.
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