Free drinks event at The Drunk Uncle ends in injuries and an arrest as bar faces closure
The "one last weekend" event, which offered free beverages, served as a final celebration at The Drunk Uncle, as the business faces closure following a defamation lawsuit against owner Neal Steffek and the city's decision to not renew the bar's license.
On May 3 at 3:45 p.m., West Allis police responded to the bar at 1902 S. 68th St. for a report of a battery complaint related to two people at the bar having a dispute, West Allis police said.
The victim, a man, was assaulted by an unknown person as he left the bar. Police said the case remains open and no arrests have been made.
Later that day, at 9:45 p.m., police responded to the bar for a report of a man who fell and was unresponsive. When police arrived, they saw the man ― who was highly intoxicated ― unconscious but breathing, police said.
It was later revealed that the man was leaning against a pole outside of the bar and fell, police said. The man had a minor injury and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
While at the bar, police saw numerous people who were intoxicated inside and outside of the bar. Because of this and the battery complaint from earlier in the day, police told the remaining patrons to leave and told the staff the bar was closed.
One patron at the bar, a 30-year-old West Allis man, was issued a citation for hindering and arrested on an unrelated outstanding warrant.
The bar remained closed for the rest of the evening.
On April 3, Steffek appeared before the West Allis Public Safety Committee to answer to the complaints against him and denied all of the allegations. The recommendation to pull the bar's license will go before the West Allis Common Council on May 6 at 7 p.m.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reached out to Steffek for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Got any tips or stories to share? Contact Adrienne Davis at amdavis@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @AdriReportss.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Drunk Uncle's 'last weekend' event leads to injuries and an arrest
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A Milwaukee cop was already on a list of officers with credibility concerns. Then he lied under oath
Wearing his Milwaukee police uniform, Gregory Carson Jr. stepped into the witness stand, raised his right hand and swore to tell the truth. Two years earlier, a man had been shot in an alley. His girlfriend said police pressured her to allow a search of the duplex as she held her infant. That search had turned up five guns and now her boyfriend faced a federal charge. On the stand that afternoon, a public defender asked Carson if he recalled making inappropriate statements to the girlfriend. Commenting on seeing her underwear on the floor? Reaching out to her hours later? Texting her? Carson's answer under oath to each question was the same. No. A few witnesses later, the girlfriend swore to tell the truth and read screenshots of text messages she had received. Hey, it's me. Honestly it was seeing your thong on the floor that had me like damn lol. The woman replied to ask who was contacting her. She read the response in court: Hey it's Carson from yesterday and I understand. The officer had been caught in a lie. At the time, Carson already was on the Milwaukee County District Attorney's list of officers with a history of credibility, integrity or bias concerns, commonly referred to as a 'Brady/Giglio' list. He also was under internal investigation for those same text messages. None of that was known to the defense attorney who questioned him. After that court hearing, Carson remained on the Milwaukee Police Department payroll for more than two years. In that period, he came under internal investigation three more times. His nine-year career illustrates the risk of keeping such officers on the force and interacting with the public after their credibility and integrity has come under question. At least a dozen officers, including Carson, kept their jobs after landing on the Brady list, then ended up on the list again for another incident, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch found. Read more: How we investigated Milwaukee County's secretive law enforcement Brady list Reached in April, Carson declined an interview request. Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said Carson faced several allegations that overlapped in time and that the officer had due process and collective bargaining rights. Internal investigations can take months or even years to complete, the chief added. 'But we still have to remember, just as a court case, you are innocent until proven guilty,' Norman said in an interview in January. Officers' rights are important, but so is protecting public trust, said Justin Nix, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha. 'Officers can arrest us, they can use force on us, and along with that comes a lot of responsibility to uphold certain values and to be honest,' Nix said in June. 'When officers fail to meet those standards, in my mind, it's unacceptable.' Officer lands on Brady list after domestic violence arrest but keeps his job Carson wanted a long career with the Milwaukee Police Department. He started as a police aide. He had relatives who were cops and he wanted to make a difference in his community, 'busting down drug houses, getting guns off the streets,' he wrote to a supervisor in 2015. 'I am striving for success, and 25 years plus on the job,' he added. He became a sworn officer in 2018. Two years later, his own department arrested him on a domestic violence allegation. A woman had called for help, saying she wanted Carson to leave their shared residence. She had confronted him over infidelity suspicions, and then he held her against the couch and bit her cheek, she said. Police separated the two. Officer Roy Caul asked the woman about domestic violence incidents that had occurred at any time, not just that night in 2020. 'Just because he's a cop doesn't mean that he's free to do this to you,' Caul said, according to transcripts from body camera footage. The woman said she just wanted Carson out of the house. The officer asked if anything occurred that night or within the last 28 days to cause her pain or make her fear for her safety. The woman replied no. Officers arrested Carson, already in uniform for his next shift, and took him to the training academy for further questioning. He denied hurting the woman. The department referred the case to the District Attorney's Office. Assistant District Attorney Nicolas Heitman declined to charge Carson. In a recent email to the Journal Sentinel, Heitman said the office did not feel it could meet the burden of proof with the available evidence. Three months later, the woman told Internal Affairs she had not feared for her safety. Carson told Internal Affairs nothing physical happened. 'I feel that I didn't do anything wrong,' he said, according to department records. Norman, the chief, disagreed and gave Carson a three-day suspension. The arrest resulted in the District Attorney's Office placing Carson on its list of officers with credibility or integrity issues, often called a 'Brady/Giglio' list, named after two landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings. These lists are maintained to help prosecutors fulfill their legal obligations to share information favorable to the defense. Often, criminal cases come down to the word of an officer against a defendant. Judges and juries must weigh the credibility of both. With Carson's name added to the list, prosecutors would need to disclose his criminal referral and integrity violation to defense attorneys if he appeared on their witness list. Then it would be up to a defense attorney, and later a judge, to determine if it was relevant to bring up in court. Carson kept his job, his badge and his ability to testify. Wisconsin does not have statewide standards for Brady lists, leaving it to each county to track material Until recently, the county's full Brady list was kept secret. After months of pressure from media organizations, the district attorney's office released the entire list last September. It was inaccurate, inconsistent and incomplete, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch found. As a result of reporters' questions, District Attorney Kent Lovern removed officers and added others. His office released a corrected and updated list of nearly 200 officers in February, which was published by the Journal Sentinel and media partners. Who gets on a list – and whether counties even have a list – varies widely in Wisconsin, where there are no statewide standards. Officers can testify in multiple counties or in federal court, depending on the case and where an investigation leads. Federal prosecutors, however, have standardized U.S. Department of Justice guidelines. Prosecutors are supposed to ask law enforcement witnesses directly about potential Brady material and check with officers' home agencies. 'This process is designed to identify information that is even broader in scope than what is legally required and what might trigger being on a list in another jurisdiction,' said Kenneth Gales, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Milwaukee, in an email. Gales maintained the office followed all proper procedures prior to Carson's testimony in the federal hearing. Even if a formal list is not shared by prosecutors, state and federal public defenders in eastern Wisconsin often exchange information between their offices about the credibility of law enforcement witnesses. Criminal defense attorneys in Wisconsin say inconsistencies in disclosing Brady material can lead to injustice and wrongful convictions. Such information is crucial for an effective defense, said Bridget Krause, trial division director for the State Public Defender's Office. 'Our clients have liberty at stake,' she said. In shooting case, a witness says officer made inappropriate comments in person and through texts In late 2021, the Milwaukee Police Department's Internal Affairs Division received a letter from a prisoner at Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution. In it, a man accused officers of illegally searching his house during a shooting investigation. It was the call involving Carson. Internal Affairs opened an investigation and notified Carson, saying he was accused of taking part in an illegal search and failing to activate his body camera. A third allegation read that 'while on scene, you made inappropriate comments to a female citizen as well as sending her an inappropriate text message," according to paperwork served on Carson on March 1, 2022. Seven days later at the court hearing, Carson denied knowing anything about the texts. He also defended his decision to turn off his body camera, saying he had switched off the device to speak with other officers, who did the same. No one recorded the conversation detectives had with the woman about searching the home. 'My role in the investigation was over once the detectives were on scene inside the residence,' Carson said, according to a court transcript. When the man's girlfriend testified, she said she felt pressured to allow the search after an officer mentioned child welfare. She feared her baby would be taken away. She also said that Carson had flirted with her in the house. When the prosecutor asked her to elaborate, she quoted Carson as saying: 'Oh, you might as well kiss your man goodbye, because you ain't never going to see him again.' She also remembered this comment: 'I'm going to come back and see you later, okay? You going to let me in? It's just going to be me and you.' As the hearing closed, Joshua Uller, a federal public defender, sharpened his argument that officers had acted improperly and their search was not lawful. Carson and others violated department policy when they didn't record their interaction with the woman as she signed the consent form. They treated a shooting victim as a suspect without evidence to do so, and Carson had acted completely inappropriately, he said. 'Turning a woman with a newborn child whose boyfriend was just taken away in an ambulance into a romantic objective is really beyond the pale,' Uller said, according to a transcript. Later that month, Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries issued his report and recommendation. Though he chided officers for failing to record the woman signing the form, he concluded they had properly gotten her consent and the search was legal. Carson's testimony on the text messages, he said, was not credible. Officer, already on the Brady list, tries to dissuade a woman from filing a complaint against another officer Two days after the hearing, an internal investigator questioned Carson about the text messages. He admitted to sending them, contradicting his testimony. He said he had a 'weakness' and had contacted the woman in 'romantic pursuit,' department records say. 'In no way shape or form did I ever intend to be inappropriate or disrespect her in that manner,' he said, according to the records. 'It was honestly me trying to shoot my shot and that was it.' He denied making inappropriate comments to her in person and denied using his position as a police officer as an advantage. He said he regretted it and had learned a lesson. He never mentioned his false testimony. At this point, federal prosecutors had not notified the Police Department of any concerns. About three months after that interview, Carson had another troubling interaction with a woman he met on duty when she and her ex-boyfriend walked into District 7 on the city's north side. The former couple had a heated property dispute. The woman also said the man had intentionally hit her head while closing a car door. The man said it was an accident. Carson was one of four officers dealing with the situation. The woman grew frustrated with an officer who implied she was lying about the car door injury and refused to write a report about the incident. Police cited the man for battery. Hours later, the woman received a call from a blocked number. It was Carson. He explained who he was and said he was off-duty. He pleaded with her not to file a complaint against his co-worker who had implied she was lying, according to police records. All of the officers involved were 'good guys' who could only do so much, she remembered him saying. She also recalled Carson saying that he hoped she would leave her ex-boyfriend alone because he did not want the ex 'popping up at her house' while Carson was there, which she believed to be a flirtatious comment. The next day, she filed two complaints at District 7: one against the officer who implied she lied and one against Carson. In a recent interview with the Journal Sentinel, the woman called the actions of the officers that day 'extremely disheartening.' 'When you're going through one of the toughest times of your life, the last thing you should have to deal with is them approaching you in a sexual manner or accusing you of lying when you're literally crying out for help,' said the woman, who asked not to be named publicly for privacy and safety reasons. Internal Affairs classified her complaint against Carson as potential misconduct in office and assigned a detective to investigate. A federal prosecutor tells the Milwaukee Police Department an officer gave false testimony in court That summer, the federal case involving the shooting victim and Carson's texts continued. The defense attorney asked another judge to weigh in on the legality of the search. As prosecutors prepared for another hearing in July 2022, Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Paulson reached out to Carson about his prior testimony. She then wrote a memo summarizing their conversation, in which she said Carson admitted to sending the texts and not being truthful in his testimony, adding: 'I'm human and I'm attracted to women.' On July 6, 2022, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Funnell emailed Internal Affairs with concerns about Carson's credibility. He followed up the next day with a transcript from the March hearing, the earlier judge's report and the defense motion for a second evidentiary hearing. Asked about the case and the length of time it took the U.S. Attorney's Office to contact Milwaukee police, a spokesman for the office said prosecutors acted appropriately. 'The United States also timely satisfied all legal disclosure obligations to the Court and to the defense in the matter you have referenced,' Gales said in an email. Carson was on the county's Brady list of officers with credibility issues — he had been since 2021 — but Uller, the federal public defender, said he had never seen the county's Brady list until the Journal Sentinel and other media partners published it in February. 'While I cannot comment on this particular case, I am not aware of any instance in which, prior to the publication of this list, a lawyer in our office was notified of an officer's inclusion in this list,' he said. The Journal Sentinel tried to contact the woman who received the texts but was not successful. Her then-boyfriend charged in the case died in a shooting two years ago. After hearing from the federal prosecutor in July 2022, Internal Affairs opened an investigation into Carson's false testimony. Carson was now the subject of three pending internal investigations, had previously received a three-day suspension and was on the county's Brady list. Still, he remained on patrol. 'At the time, it's an allegation,' Norman, the police chief, said in an interview. 'We have, again, due process,' he added. 'And so we need to make sure that there is, you know, the fairness of ensuring that there is credibility to everything, even from a prosecutor.' A domestic violence victim calls for help, and an officer under internal investigation responds Bobbie Lou Schoeffling called 911 for help on July 11, 2022. Over the previous months, Schoeffling or her sister had repeatedly called police to report violence from Schoeffling's ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Howell. Howell had not been arrested despite the multiple reports, having an open warrant for fleeing and being under the supervision of correctional agents for a past robbery conviction. That night, Schoeffling called police twice to report threats from Howell. On the second call, she said he had threatened to burn down her house on Hampton Avenue. She had left the area, fearing for her safety, she added. Carson and his partner were dispatched to the second call. They did not drive to her house. Instead, Carson spoke to her over the phone and failed to activate his body camera to record their conversation. Carson and his partner — and the two officers who responded earlier that night — did not file any reports or make any arrests. Schoeffling was found shot to death two weeks later, on July 26. On Sept. 4, 2022, police leaders finally pulled Carson from patrol, stripped him of his police powers and assigned him to the stolen vehicle desk in the forensics division. He did not routinely interact with the public in the role, and the job limited him from having to testify, a department spokesperson said in an email to the Journal Sentinel. As internal investigations conclude, officer faces a suspension, then termination As Carson sat at his desk job, his discipline piled up. In February 2023, Norman suspended him for six days for the inappropriate texts and for failing to activate his body camera at the shooting scene. Two months later, in April, the Journal Sentinel published an investigation into Schoeffling's death. The article prompted Norman to order a review of every contact she had with the department, including the one involving Carson. The chief later suspended Carson for eight days for how he handled the call. That same month, Internal Affairs interviewed Carson about the complaint filed by the woman at District 7. That investigation had slowed, in part, because it was difficult to reach the woman for follow-up interviews, records show. The woman told the Journal Sentinel that she recalled speaking to an investigator once after filing her complaint and said she received several letters from the department. Carson told the investigator, Sgt. Adam Riley, that when he called the woman, he did not say anything suggestive, only that she was worth more than her ex-boyfriend, according to department records. He acknowledged urging her not to make a complaint. Riley pointed out the officer appeared to have a 'pattern." Riley asked about Carson's court testimony in the earlier case, pointing out he knew about the allegation related to the texts before his testimony. Carson said he thought he was truthful on the stand because he did not remember the text at the time. Carson also said the federal prosecutor who wrote the memo had 'misinterpreted' their conversation. Riley asked if Carson would have done anything differently. No, he said. Federal and state prosecutors declined to file criminal charges of perjury or misconduct against Carson. But the District Attorney's Office did add him to the Brady list for a second time — and the false testimony cost him his job. Norman fired him for lying under oath and for discouraging the woman at District 7 from making a complaint. Carson's discharge date was Aug. 28, 2024, three years after he was first placed on the Brady list in the aftermath of his domestic violence arrest. The woman who filed the complaint against Carson and the other officer at District 7 knew Carson had been fired. Still, she has concerns about how the department investigates misconduct allegations. 'I think it's not handled appropriately or quickly enough,' she said. Tia Schoeffling, Bobbie Lou Schoffling's sister, called it 'ridiculous' that an officer arrested in such a case could then respond to domestic violence victims. She thought of Carson on desk duty for two years, collecting nearly $80,000 in annual wages while he was the subject of several ongoing internal investigations. She questioned if it would have taken that long to investigate a regular citizen for similar allegations. 'It's mind-blowing that he was even allowed to respond to her call,' she said. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee police officer was on Brady list twice before he was fired Solve the daily Crossword
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Who Killed Jessie Blodgett? What to Know About Daniel Bartelt and Where He Is Now
Jessie Blodgett was found dead in bed in July 2013, and Daniel Bartelt mourned with her familyNEED TO KNOW Investigation Discovery's A Killer Among Friends recounts the true story of Jessie Blodgett's murder at the hands of Daniel Bartelt The 19-year-old theater student was found strangled in her bed in July 2013 Bartelt was arrested for Blodgett's death, and he was sentenced in August 2014Jessie Blodgett was an actress and musician whose life was cut short by Daniel Bartelt. A recent episode of Investigation Discovery's true crime series A Killer Among Friends recounted the 2013 murder of the 19-year-old Wisconsin theater student by her friend and former boyfriend, Bartelt. The incident stunned the town of Hartford, Wis., as Blodgett's friends and family tried to solve who killed her and why. "Prior to Jessie Blodgett's murder, we hadn't had a homicide in almost 30 years," Lt. James Zywicki, Hartford police investigator, said on A Killer Among Friends. The authorities were immediately on the case, and following a 16-day investigation, Bartelt was arrested and charged with the murder of his friend. Here's everything to know about Jessie Blodgett's murder, Daniel Bartelt's conviction and where he is now. Who was Jessie Blodgett? Blodgett was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she was studying theater. On July 14, 2013, Blodgett came home later from a cast party after a performance of Fiddler on the Roof, where she was playing the Fiddler. According to a police affidavit obtained by ABC News, Blodgett returned at 1 a.m., and her mom discovered her lifeless body in Blodgett's bed around 12 p.m. the next day. Investigators stated that there were signs of strangulation on her neck, but couldn't find a weapon in her room. Shortly after, the police got a search warrant to look through the teenager's phone records and Facebook account, on which she wrote about her play and posted a photo of herself with the rest of the cast. An autopsy later confirmed that Blodgett's cause of death was strangulation, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Who is Daniel Bartelt? Blodgett and Bartelt knew each other for several years, and according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, they had previously dated early on in high school. The former couple stayed friends and spoke regularly. "Jessie and Dan sit together at school; he was a straight-A student ... they would write songs together and sing together. He was welcome in our home," Jessie's father, Buck Blodgett, said in A Killer Among Friends. In a twist, after Blodgett was found dead in her bed, Bartelt showed his support to his family. "He was just over, the day after Jessie's murder, sharing hugs and memories and tears with us until his phone rang and he was called in for questioning," Buck explained. While there were unanswered questions about the tragedy, police were piecing together clues and instances related to Bartelt's activity outside of Blodgett's home. Days before her murder, he had attacked a woman in a nearby park on July 12. While the victim was out walking with her dog, Bartelt charged at her with a knife. She was able to wrestle the weapon away from Bartelt, and he drove off in his van. WISN 12 News reported that Bartelt was later questioned on July 16, and he admitted to attacking the woman. He was charged with four felonies and a misdemeanor. How did the police catch Daniel Bartelt? Authorities zeroed in on Bartelt as a suspect in Blodgett's killing when he mentioned an element of the crime that had not yet been made public. While being questioned by the police, Bartelt said someone had "raped and murdered" Jessie, but the rape detail was not known to those outside of the investigation, according to A Killer Among Friends. Police were able to obtain video footage of Bartelt walking through Woodlawn Park on the day of Blodgett's murder. They then searched the park's trash cans and found ropes, bloody sanitizing wipes and tape inside a discarded cereal box. Once tested, it was later confirmed that the evidence contained Blodgett and Bartelt's DNA. Per investigators also found "disturbing online search history" on Bartelt's computer, "including multiple queries about serial killers." Why did Daniel Bartelt kill Jessie Blodgett? Bartelt did not give an answer for why he killed Blodgett, and maintains his innocence. "I can't give you the reasons you are looking for. There's no hiding from yourself in a tiny, concrete cell," Bartelt told Blodgett's parents, per Milwaukee's Fox 6. "This jumpsuit that I'm wearing, these shackles don't make me guilty. I know there's evidence that I can't refute that would make you believe that I am guilty." Still, prosecutors stated during the trial that Bartelt likely targeted Blodgett because it was "convenient," according to ABC News reported that Blodgett's friends said Bartelt had tried to get back together with her, but she didn't feel the same way. What was Daniel Bartelt charged with? Bartelt was charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide for Blodgett's death, per Milwaukee's Fox 6. He also faced a second count of first-degree intentional homicide, one count of first-degree recklessly endangering safety and one count of false imprisonment for the alleged attack against the woman with her dog. Where is Daniel Bartelt now? Bartelt was found guilty on Oct. 14, 2014, and was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He's currently imprisoned in the Wisconsin Waupun Correctional Institution and maintains he is innocent. "I find that the gravity of this offense, the premeditation, the brutality, is so overwhelming I think the Blodgetts are entitled to know that even after they're gone, there's no chance the defendant will ever walk the streets again and endanger someone else," judge Todd Martens said at the sentencing, per WISN 12 News. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Buck also told Bartelt he forgave him. "I not only forgive you, I love you," he said. "I didn't mean it like I like him, like I want to hang out and watch Packer games," Buck later explained. "But like a willful act of what I want to bring to this world, which is the opposite of what he brought in and took out of this world." Blodgett's legacy has lived on in the years since her death. In 2016, her father founded the Love Is Greater Than Hate Project in her honor. Buck said his daughter's "last big cause in life was male violence against women. She was just fiercely outspoken about that for a year or two before her death." Read the original article on People
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28-06-2025
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What we know in the aftermath of the Minnesota shootings
Tremors spread though the political world on Monday after the weekend's fatal shooting of a Democratic lawmaker and her spouse in Minnesota, and another shooting, allegedly by the same perpetrator, that injured a second lawmaker and his wife. The suspect, Vance Boelter, 57, was apprehended late Sunday. He faces murder charges in state courts. On Monday, federal prosecutors also charged him with murder. Boelter is accused of killing Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark, at their home in a Minneapolis suburb in the early hours of Saturday. Prosecutors allege that, shortly before, he had shot state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette, at their home. The Hoffmans have undergone surgery and are expected to survive. Here's what we know so far. A major development Monday came with the unveiling of the federal charges against Boelter — and the details from prosecutors that accompanied those charges. Boelter has been charged with murder and stalking. Federal prosecutors allege that the suspect had visited a total of four lawmakers' homes. In addition to the two where shootings took place, he is said to have visited an address where his target was not home, and to have left another address without opening fire, perhaps because of police presence there. Prosecutors did not identify the lawmaker, but state Sen. Ann Rest (D) identified herself, saying that she had been told that Boelter had been close to her home during the hours in question. She thanked local police officers for having 'saved my life.' Authorities said other documentation appeared to show that Boelter had been planning the attacks for months. Boelter apparently had a list of targets, as well as copious other plans. Both of Minnesota's senators, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D) and Tina Smith (D), have confirmed that they were on the list. An unnamed law enforcement officer told The New York Times that Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.) and Angie Craig (D-Minn.) were also among the targets. Boelter's lists also extended beyond Minnesota. Abigail Leavins, a reporter for a website that covers politics in Wisconsin, said that Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) were also confirmed to be among the potential targets. Lawrence Andrea of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) was on the list, too. Multiple media outlets have reported that all the politicians allegedly targeted are Democrats. The list also appears to have included some addresses associated with reproductive rights, including abortion providers and Planned Parenthood clinics. Federal authorities have declined to identify a clear and specific political motive so far. But media interviews of Boelter's friends and acquaintances have formed a picture of a socially conservative, vigorously anti-abortion figure who, at least one friend said, supported President Trump in last year's election. In one clip available online, he delivers a sermon to an audience in Africa complaining that many American churches 'are so messed up they don't know abortion is wrong.' His roommate told reporters that Boelter was 'a Trump supporter' who 'would be offended if people called him a Democrat.' The tragedy of the killings was soon followed by a political firestorm. The instigator was Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who on Sunday posted a photo on social media of the suspect with the caption, 'This is what happens when Marxists don't get their way.' A short time after, Lee sent another post with two photos of the suspect, including one in which he was wearing a mask, with the caption 'Nightmare on Waltz Street.' This was widely interpreted as a reference to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), former Vice President Kamala Harris's running mate in the 2024 election. Influencers within the online right have been floating a conspiracy theory about Walz and the shooter, based on the fact that Walz had reappointed Boelter to a state economic panel in 2019. Democrats and liberals reacted furiously. Klobuchar told MSNBC on Monday that she 'condemned' what Lee had done and said she would 'speak to him about this' when they next met. 'What I'm going to tell him is: This isn't funny,' Klobuchar added. Smith, at the Capitol, told reporters she was also seeking out Lee for a conversation. The Hill's Al Weaver posted a photo of the two in conversation soon afterward. Weaver also reported that Smith told reporters she wanted Lee to hear from her directly 'about how painful that was and how brutal that was to see that on what was just a horrible, brutal weekend.' Caroline Gleich, who was the Democratic nominee in last year's Senate race in Utah — ultimately losing to Lee's colleague Sen. John Curtis (R) — told The Hill in a video interview that Lee's posts were 'absolutely despicable.' Lee has not deleted the posts. His office did not respond to an invitation to comment. The hours since the shooting have seen significant misinformation. The Minnesota Star Tribune was among the news outlets trying to push the tide of confusion back. It noted that many members on the state board on which Boelter once served 'were not politically connected [nor] would have meaningful access to the governor.' Board members are purportedly appointed because of their insights into particular industries or areas of knowledge, not because they reflect a governor's ideology. A source in Walz's office also told the Star Tribune the governor did not know Boelter. The news organization also noted that, contrary to online speculation, Boelter's wife had never served as an intern for Walz. There appears to have been some confusion over another person with the same name, married to someone else. But at times, careful reporting seems little match for the tsunami of often-erroneous social media speculation. Reams have been written about the growing polarization of American politics over the past few decades. But there is a lot of evidence that the nation's political gulf just keeps getting wider and more bitter. The shootings in Minnesota are sure to produce more questions about where this will all lead. Trump himself was almost killed last July during a rally in Pennsylvania. A California man in April pleaded guilty to trying to kill conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Several men were convicted in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2020. With no end in sight to the enmity in the political system, attention is turning to increasing security for lawmakers and others in public life. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) — along with the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, Rep. Joe Morelle (N.Y.) — wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday asking to increase the amount of money available to lawmakers to bolster security. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
