Portrait of suspect in Minnesota 'politically motivated' shootings emerges amid massive manhunt
As a massive manhunt for Vance Boelter continues, authorities are piecing together a profile of the alleged gunman accused of killing a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another in two separate 'politically motivated' shootings on Saturday morning.
State Rep. Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park and her husband, Mark, were killed in one shooting, and State Sen. John Hoffman of Champlin and his wife, Yvette, were severely injured in another. Hoffman and his wife remain hospitalized.
Officials say Boelter impersonated law enforcement in order to gain access to the lawmakers' homes. Photos, believed to be of Boelter, show a man at one of the victim's door wearing a long-sleeve shirt and what looks like a bulletproof vest similar to those worn by law enforcement. Another photo shows a man wearing a cowboy hat walking alone.
Authorities found what they believe is his vehicle and cowboy hat in Sibley County, where an emergency alert has been issued for residents in the area to keep their doors locked and cars secured, NBC affiliate KARE 11 reported.
He's married with five children
Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson identified 57-year-old Boelter as the suspect in the shootings, describing him as 6-foot-1 with brown hair, wearing a light-colored cowboy hat and a dark long-sleeve collared shirt or coat. Jacobson urged the public not to approach Boelter if they see him, adding that he is "armed and dangerous." During a press briefing Saturday Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the shootings were "politically motivated."
According to a video circulating online, Boelter is married and a father of five children. His wife, who has not been identified, was stopped by the Mille Lacs County Sheriff's Office Saturday morning in Onamia, Minnesota as part of a perimeter stop. There were "several other relatives," in the car, according to the sheriff's office and no one in the vehicle was questioned or searched.
He worked in Africa
In a 2022 video posted to Facebook and verified by NBC News, Minnesota Africans United featured a person introduced as Vance Boelter during a discussion about trade and investment opportunities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As a keynote presenter, Boelter said he was calling from the DRC, and spoke about his work partnering with farmers and fishermen in the country to help them stimulate their food supply system.
In a statement shared with NBC News, a spokesperson for Minnesota Africans United said " there is no connection between Minnesota Africans United and the individual who carried out the assassinations and attacks" on Hortman, Hoffman and their spouses.
He spoke at church sermons
Boelter delivered church sermons in the DRC in 2021, 2022 and 2023, according to live streams posted to Facebook authenticated by NBC News. In 2021 speech, he began with a prayer and then spoke about his path to becoming a better Christian.
Boelter recounted working in a vegetable-canning factory at age 17 with a coworker who "talked about God all the time," ultimately inspiring him to take his religion more seriously.
At one point during his testimony, Boelter dropped to his knees as he described the moment he dedicated his life to Jesus.
"And I said 'I'm so sorry, forgive me God, for living for myself, and not for you,'" he said. "And I said 'Jesus, if you forgive me of my sin and save me, I'll live for you for the rest of my life.'"
He worked for two funeral homes
In a resume-style video circulating online, Boelter introduces himself as a married father of five from Green Isle, Minnesota, who works for two funeral homes, Wulff Funeral Home and Metro First Call, handling what he called "removals."
'Fun fact about myself, I've been in the food industry about 30 years and that led to an opportunity. I was invited to the Democratic Republic of Congo,' he said in the video, adding that he worked with Del Monte Foods and Minnesota-based chicken producer Gold'n Plump.
Boelter explained he left the food industry because his company 'wasn't interested in doing anything in Africa,' he then transitioned to the funeral home business while pursuing projects in Africa on his own.
Boelter mentioned in the video that he was taking a course to learn more about the funeral industry, indicating it may have been taped for the class. The timing of the video, recorded using screen-recording software Screenpal, remains unclear.
In a statement, Tim Koch, the owner of Metro First Call said Boelter worked for the company from August 2023 until he "voluntarily left" in February of this year.
"To say anything more at this time would be irresponsible as the investigation continues," Koch said.
He was described by a roommate as "a loving, caring guy"
Boelter's roommate, who was not identified, spoke to NBC affiliate KARE 11 about him.
"I mean, he was a loving, caring guy, you know," the man told the outlet. "Loved his family, loved his friends, and loved God, and I don't know why he did what he did. It's just, it's not Vance. No one will believe this."
The roommate said he received a final message from Boelter around 6 a.m. Saturday in which he said he "may be dead shortly."
"So, I just want to let you know that I love you guys both, and I wish it hadn't gone this way," the text, read by Boelter's tearful roommate, read. "I don't want to say anything more and implicate you in any way, because you guys don't know anything about this. But I love you guys, and I'm sorry for all the trouble this has caused."
It is not clear at this time whether the roommate lived with Boelter and his family, or if Boelter had been living separately from his family with the roommate.
Anyone who sees Boelter is encouraged to call 911. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to Boelter's arrest.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
How the ‘politically motivated' shooting of Minnesota lawmakers unleashed right-wing conspiracy theories
Police in Minnesota are grappling with two different chases. The first, most pressing one, is to locate Vance L. Boelter, the man suspected of impersonating a police officer and shooting two state lawmakers and their spouses in a 'politically motivated' attack on Saturday. The other is a race to get in front of feverish conspiracy theories about the incident that are spreading across right-wing corners of the internet. It didn't take long for the conjecture to begin after the fatal shootings of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, as well as the non-fatal shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, hit the headlines. In regards to Hortman, right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich wondered aloud on X, 'Did [Minnesota Governor] Tim Walz have her executed to send a message?' Fellow fabulist Alex Jones, meanwhile, used a Saturday broadcast to make a variety of unfounded implications, including that Hortman was killed because she was considering switching parties and joining Republicans, and that suspect Boelter was a 'high-level' Walz appointee and 'No Kings' protest organizer. Jones capped off the a misinformation session by reading from a social media post from a seemingly random, pseudonymous account that called the shooting a 'professional hit.' Such claims reached thousands of people, even as they defied common sense and all evidence that eventually became available about the shootings. Boelter was not a high-level ally of the governor, but rather a re-upped appointee from a previous administration on an obscure workforce board with about 60 members. Hortman was not planning on switching parties, though she did help broker a controversial compromise with Republicans this year to scale back undocumented immigrants' access to a state health program in order to keep the government open. Further eroding the narrative of the shooting as a Democratic plot against Hortman, Hoffman, the other targeted lawmaker, voted on the opposite side of the immigration issue. Evidence found in Boelter's vehicle reportedly contained a hit list of prominent state Democrats and abortion rights supporters. State officials were worried about safety threats to the protests after finding papers marked 'No Kings,' rather than the alleged gunman being a protest leader. The man's roommate also described him as a Trump voter. Such reactions from a right-wing media ecosystem are no longer a surprise, but the Minnesota crisis revealed the depths to which even mainstream, Republican-aligned U.S. politicians and corporate figures were willing to encourage the notion of a violent left-wing plot well before all the facts had come out. Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, less than a day after saying he condemned all 'political violence' in America after a fatal shooting at a protest in his home state, appeared to mock the Minnesota tragedy, calling it the 'Nightmare on Waltz Street' in an X post, an apparent misspelling of the governor's name. He also suggested that left-wing ideology had caused the shooting. 'Marxism is a deadly mental illness,' he wrote. 'This is what happens,' he wrote in a caption for a photograph of the alleged Minnesota shooter, 'When Marxists don't get their way.' Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio took a similar tack, writing on X: 'The degree to which the extreme left has become radical, violent, and intolerant is both stunning and terrifying.' Former White House adviser Elon Musk — who amplified conspiracy theories surrounding the 2022 hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi — again waded into the fray. 'The far left is murderously violent,' he wrote on X the same day he said he was working to reprogram X's AI program Grok because it was spreading 'leftist indoctrination.' Dan Bongino, a former right-wing broadcaster who joined the numerous voices on the right suggesting something about the official narrative of the Pelosi hammer attack didn't add up, is now the deputy director of the FBI, which is assisting in the Minnesota manhunt. 'The FBI is fully engaged on the ground in Minnesota and is working in collaboration with our local and state partners,' he said Saturday. Local officials and media figures called on outside observers to stop speculating about the shooting, given the intense grief associated surrounding the attack and the many unanswered questions about how a man was able to disguise himself as a police office, shoot four people, and escape. 'In a different, saner world, they would be humiliated and slink away,' wrote J. Patrick Coolican, editor of the Minnesota Reformer. 'But the smart money is that during the next moment of national crisis and mourning, they will again lie for profit.' Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, called on those engaging in such speculation to remember that 'we have families that continue to grieve.' 'While everybody wants an easy answer, I would encourage everybody online and in our communities to not speculate on what occurred and what the motivation was for this,' he said during a press conference on Sunday. 'We often want easy answers for complex problems,' he said. 'And this is a complex situation that our investigators are going to need time to sift through the information and evidence, and those answers will come as we complete a full picture of our investigation.' 'We must truly focus on what matters beneath all of our differences — political, personal or otherwise,' Mayor Ryan Sabas of Champlin, Minnesota, told reporters at the briefing. 'We are all human beings, and every human life has a value.'
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Minnesota manhunt continues for gunman who 'posed as cop' to kill Melissa Hortman and her husband
A manhunt is continuing after the gunning down of a Democrat politician and her husband - with police saying they're acting on the assumption he is still alive and dangerous. Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman were shot dead at home in a Minneapolis suburb on Saturday in what governor Tim Walz called a "politically motivated assassination". Democrat senator John Hoffman and his wife were also shot multiple times at their home nine miles away, but survived. A search is under way for Vance Boelter, 57, who authorities believe posed as a police officer and used a vehicle resembling a squad car. Several AK-style firearms and a list of about 70 names, which included politicians and abortion rights activists, were found inside. Boelter was last caught on camera wearing a cowboy hat - a similar hat was found near another vehicle belonging to him on Sunday. Authorities said at their latest news conference they assume he is still alive. Hundreds of police officers are searching for Boelter, who escaped from the Hortmans' house on foot after an exchange of gunfire. Senator Hoffman was shot nine times and is having multiple surgeries, according to a text message shared on Instagram by fellow senator Amy Klobuchar on Sunday. The text from Mr Hoffman's wife, Yvette, added: "I took 8 and we are both incredibly lucky to be alive." She said her husband "is closer every hour to being out of the woods". "We believe [Boelter's] somewhere in the vicinity and that they are going to find him," Senator Klobuchar told NBC's Meet the Press. "Everyone's on edge here," she added, "because we know that this man will kill at a second." 2:58 Police said they responded to gunfire reports at the Hoffmans' Champlin home shortly after 2am on Saturday and found them with multiple gunshot wounds. They then checked on the Hortmans' home, in the nearby Brooklyn Park suburb, and saw what appeared to be a police car and a man dressed as an officer leaving the front door. "The individual immediately fired upon the officers, who exchanged gunfire, and the suspect retreated back into the home" and escaped on foot, said Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley. Another vehicle belonging to Boelter was searched on Sunday in Minnesota's Faxon Township. A cowboy hat similar to the one seen in the police appeal was found nearby. It's been revealed that the suspect texted friends around 6am on Saturday to say he had "made some choices" and was "going to be gone for a while". According to AP, which has seen the messages, he reportedly said: "May be dead shortly, so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn't gone this way... I'm sorry for all the trouble this has caused." 1:08 Records show Boelter - a father of five - is a former political appointee who served on the same state workforce development board as Mr Hoffman. However, it's unclear to what extent they knew each other, if at all. Mr Hoffman, 60, was first elected in 2012 and runs a consulting firm called Hoffman Strategic Advisors. Melissa Hortman, a 55-year-old mother of two, was first elected in 2004 and was the top house Democratic leader in the state legislature. She also served as speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Mrs Hortman used her position to champion protections around abortion rights, including laws to cement Minnesota's status as a safe refuge for people from restrictive states, who travel there for an abortion.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Terrifying new 'hit list' with a dozen more targets found at suspected Minnesota shooter's home
A second hit list written by alleged fugitive assassin Vance Boelter has been discovered at his home as the manhunt for the double homicide suspect continues. Boelter, 57, is wanted for allegedly shooting dead Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman and wounding his Democratic State Senator John Hoffman on Saturday. He is facing both state and federal charges, with authorities announcing on Sunday that there is both a 'nationwide warrant' for Boelter's arrest for the murders and attempted murder at the state level as well as a federal warrant for 'unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.' Hortman and her husband Mark were killed at their home in Champlin, in northern Minneapolis, while Hoffman and his wife Yvette were wounded at their house in nearby Brooklyn Park. It is believed Boelter, a Trump supporter, was motivated to kill the two Democrats due to their support for abortion rights after police uncovered a hit list of about 70 people from his car Saturday morning. Most of the names on that list were Democrats or people with ties to Planned Parenthood or the abortion rights movement, CNN reports. A second hit list with more than a dozen new names was also found during a search of one of Boelter's homes on Saturday as police continued their manhunt for the suspect. Authorities located Boelter's car, a Buick that appeared to be dumped in Faxon Township, on Sunday and found a cowboy hot lying on the ground that was identical to one Boelter was wearing in CCTV images released by the FBI. By around 4pm, a four-door dark blue Buick Regal sedan was seen being removed from the search area on a flatbed truck. Here's what you need to know about the political assassinations in Minnesota: Boelter is wanted for the killings of Democratic State Rep Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in Champlin. The suspect also shot and wounded Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette in nearby Brooklyn Park. Cops first responded to a call about the shooting at Hoffman's home about 2am on Saturday. They then went to check Hortman's home where they spotted the suspect. The suspect, dressed in police gear, exchanged gunfire with cops before retreating inside the house and then fleeing out the back on foot. Boelter's wife Jenny was pulled over by police with suspicious items in her car about 10am on Saturday, but was let go The FBI believes the attacks were politically motivated and is offering a $50,000 reward to find Boelter. Cops found several rifles in Boelter's vehicle and believe he may still be armed with a pistol. Inside the car they found handmade 'No Kings' flyers, an anti-Trump protests that took place across the US on Saturday that he may have planned to attack. Boelter was a Trump supporter and opposed abortion, according to his roommate. Inside his car cops found a hit list of prominent abortion rights campaigners, many of them Democratic lawmakers. Donald Trump called the shootings 'terrible' after being briefed on the matter. 'Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America,' he said. The development came after state troopers equipped with rifles and full body armor went house to house searching yards, outbuildings and garages. The military-style convey traveled in armored vehicles with rooftop snipers, but as of 7pm, the fugitive was still at-large. Minnesota State Patrol, SWAT teams, and a US Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrived in a dozen or more vehicles including heavily armored trucks about 11am on Sunday. The convoy included officers from the Bloomington Bomb Squad, one of four specialist units on call across the state to detect and defuse explosives. Hundreds more police set up a command post in Green Isle, near Boelter and his wife Jenny's home, to coordinate the manhunt. The search area includes around 120 acres of fields and woodland belonging to Brian Liebhard, 65. He said he was having trouble sleeping and was on his porch alone at 2.30am when he heard gunshots - about eight hours before the police arrived. His nephew later told him he'd found a dark Buick abandoned in a secluded side road along with a cowboy hat. 'I heard two shots. I have no idea if it's related to this,' he previously told Liebhard said he went to church on Sunday morning and came back and found access to his property blocked by a police cordon. He gave officers permission to begin an extensive search of his land, which includes several abandoned, crumbling homes and barns. The area is waterlogged and difficult to traverse without sinking deep into the mud, Liebhard added. 'My daughter brought up where this guy lived and said "Dad he's only four miles from us,"' he said. 'I've never seen him myself. As far as I know they are still searching for him there.' As the afternoon wore on, locals gathered at the cordon to exchange theories and gossip about the manhunt. 'So the hat is just sat there on the side of the road?' said one. 'It's too convenient. It's obviously a decoy. You fellas can't see the wood for the trees.' Authorities have also questioned Boelter's wife, Jenny, who was stopped at a convenience store while driving a car with three other relatives inside near Onamia about 10am on Saturday. She was found with a weapon, ammunition, cash, and passports about 75 miles from where the shootings took place in northern Minneapolis eight hours earlier. More than a dozen officers swarmed Jenny's car during the traffic stop and they were at the scene for two to three hours. Jenny was detained for questioning after officers found the items inside the vehicle, but no one was arrested as she was released. Authorities have since said she and other family members were cooperative with the investigation. But it remains unclear whether Boelter's vehicle was stopped randomly or being tracked by police, as the FBI offers a $50,000 reward for any information leading to his capture. Police said on Sunday they have already received more than 400 tips, and have recovered evidence from his vehicle. 'We continue to conduct interviews on the investigative piece, not only to learn his whereabouts, but also to follow up on the case and gather the information as part of the prosecution related to him,' Drew Evans, the superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at Minnesota's Department of Public Safety added. Police say Boelter the shot Hoffman and his wife Yvette at their home in Champlin at around 2am on Saturday, but they survived the attack with multiple wounds. Hortman and her husband Mark were then fatally shot at their home eight miles away in Brooklyn Park about 3am. Officers then encountered the gunman fleeing Hortman's home at 3.35am and exchanged gunfire with him, which is when they reportedly found the initial hit list. Chilling photos showed the suspect donning an unsettling costume mask covering his entire head. Yet officers somehow let the suspect slip through their fingers as he escaped the scene on foot. As authorities began their search for the suspect, Boelter's best friend and roommate David Carlson told local news outlet KARE11 he was an avid Trump supporter and voted for the Republican candidate. He also described the suspect as a Christian who opposed abortion. In fact, the suspect worked as a pastor and was seen in a newly unearthed video dancing in a church service in Africa. The clip, filmed in February 2023, showed him delivering a passionate testimony about how he met Jesus at the age of 17. 'I met the Lord when I was 17 years old and I gave my life to Jesus Christ,' he says in the clip. He went on to describe naming his five children - who he shares with Jenny - after Christian virtues, Grace, Faith, Hope, Joy, and David, in what he calls a testament to God's blessings on his life. The alleged assassin also has armed security experience in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and North America through the Praetorian Guard Security Services, his biography on the website detailed. 'He brings a great security aspect forged by both many on the ground experiences combined with training by both private security firms and by people in the US Military,' it read. 'Vance Boelter has focused all this experience to make sure Praetorian Guard Security Services covers the needs you have to keep your family and property safe.' Boelter had also lived a life of public service before Saturday's tragedies, and he even served on the Governor's Workforce Development Board, which works closely with Gov. Tim Walz to give advice on the state's workforce. He served on the board from June 2016 to June 2018 as a private sector representative and from December 2019 to January 2023 as a board member. He was appointed under Walz both times. Additionally, Boelter was the chief executive of Red Lion Group, which was based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Red Lion Group has since deleted its website and LinkedIn pages, but Boelter's LinkedIn said he started at the company in December 2021. He announced two years ago that he was in the country with his company, working on 'private business projects'. Boelter also worked for Metro First Call, a funeral company in Minneapolis, in August 2023 to February 2025, where he took bodies from nursing homes to the business to be prepared for burial. He said in a video posted online that he worked with police and death investigators at crime scenes. Boelter updated his LinkedIn a month ago to say he had returned to the US and was looking for work in the food industry on the corporate side. He had previously worked at 7-Eleven and Greencore as a general manager, a system manager at Del Monte Foods, and an operational leader at Johnsonville Sausage, according to his LinkedIn. The social media page also shows his deep connections to politics, as he asked his followers to vote ahead of the 2020 election. The night before the deadly shots were fired, Boelter texted his roommates that he was 'going to be gone for a while'. Carlson, who shared a North Minneapolis home with Boelter, tearfully read aloud text messages from the accused assassin. 'David and Ron, I love you guys,' the eerie note began. 'I made some choices, and you guys don't know anything about this, but I'm going to be gone for a while.' He also said he 'may be dead shortly' and did not wish to involve Carlson or his other roommate Ron Ramsey. 'I don't know why he did what he did,' Carlson, his roommate, told KARE 11. 'It's just... it's not Vance... He had lots of friends, trust me, and I wish I could have been there to stop him.'
