Law Enforcement Clarify Minnesota Assassin 'Manifesto' Claims
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A notebook was recovered from a vehicle connected to accused killer Vance Boelter during the ongoing search, Drew Evans, Superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), told reporters during a press conference Sunday night.
"We did find items of evidence in that car that are relevant to the investigation," Evans said.
Evans clarified that the item found was "not what would be a traditional manifesto," but rather, "This is a notebook with a lot of lawmakers and other listed in here. Much more other thoughts."
There are multiple agencies scouring throughout the area of Sibley county, after a vehicle and a hat believed to belong to Boelter were discovered early Sunday morning, Evans said.
"There is information that led us to do the searches that continue in Sibley county," Evans explained, adding that investigators "will be there until they feel they have done a through and complete search."
"This is of the utmost priority," Evans said, adding that the vehicle was located "very early today" and a hat was found "in proximity to the vehicle."
Evans also confirmed that Boelter's wife and other family members were being interviewed by law enforcement but were not in custody.
He said the interviews were being conducted to learn more about what led up to the deadly shooting of Minnesota Democratic state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, as well as the shootings of Senator John Hoffman and his wife, who survived.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
What we know about the Minnesota shooting suspect
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Here's what we know about the suspect. Advertisement Does he have a connection to the victims? Boelter had served on a state economic board with one of the victims, state Senator John Hoffman, who survived the shooting, though it is unclear if they actually knew each other. Boelter was appointed to the panel, the Minnesota Governor's Workforce Development Board, in 2016 by a Democratic former governor, Mark Dayton. The board has 41 members appointed by the governor, and its members try to improve business development in the state. He was later reappointed by Gov. Tim Walz, also a Democrat. Boelter and Hoffman attended a virtual meeting together in 2022 for a discussion about the job market in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, minutes from the meeting show, though officials said they did not know if the two had any kind of relationship. Advertisement Current and former members of the board said that there were a handful of meetings each year and that there was often no direct interaction with the governor. One said the governor had not attended any of the group's meetings in her four years on the board. They said it would be easy for two members not to know each other. What are his political affiliations? Walz has said that the shooting 'appears to be a politically motivated assassination,' though the exact motive for the attack is not yet clear. Voters do not declare political affiliation when they register in Minnesota, and a state report connected to the workforce board listed Boelter's affiliation as 'none or other' in 2016. A similar report in 2020 listed him as having 'no party preference.' But David Carlson, a roommate and close friend of Boelter's, said Boelter voted for Donald Trump last year and was particularly passionate about opposing abortion. Carlson said he had known Boelter since fourth grade. He said that he knew that Boelter owned guns but that he had never heard him speak about either of the two lawmakers who were shot. Recently, he said, Boelter had been experiencing financial and mental health challenges. He 'just gave up on life for some reason,' he said. Carlson read aloud a text message from Boelter that he received Saturday morning in which Boelter wrote that he might 'be dead shortly.' The message did not describe any details of the attacks, Carlson said. It went on: '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.' Advertisement Carlson said that Friday, Boelter gave him four months' worth of advance rent payments -- about $220 a month -- for a small room in the shared house. Boelter also thanked his roommates for their friendship and then said that he needed some rest, Carlson said, so he left him alone. Boelter's lack of a party affiliation on public documents does not necessarily mean that he is not interested in the country's political affairs. In November 2018, Boelter urged his followers on LinkedIn to vote in that year's election, saying he had been to countries where people could not elect their leaders and that they were 'not places that anyone of us would want to live in.' 'I think the election is going to have more of an impact on the direction of our country than probably any election we have been apart of, or will be apart of for years to come,' he wrote. The lawmaker who was killed Saturday, state Rep. Melissa Hortman, ran successfully for reelection that year. He worked in the funeral industry and preached in central Africa Boelter's professional history is varied. In one video he posted online, seemingly for an educational course, Boelter said he worked six days a week for two funeral service companies in the Minneapolis area. At one of the companies, he said, he sometimes helped to remove bodies from crime scenes and would work with police officers and death investigators. A spokesperson for Des Moines Area Community College in Iowa said Boelter took classes in the school's mortuary science program, which is primarily an online program, in 2023 and 2024. Advertisement State reports and his LinkedIn profile indicate that he had also been the general manager of a 7-Eleven in Minneapolis and, before that, general manager of a gas station in St. Paul. A report in 2017 listed him as an executive at an energy company. More recently, he said on LinkedIn that he was CEO of a company called Red Lion Group, which is in Congo and whose website lists a vague mission of creating 'good jobs for local people.' Boelter has delivered several sermons at a church in that country. In the sermons, which were posted online, he said he gave his life to Jesus as a teenager and had been blessed with five children. In one, he said he had been friends with David Emerson, a missionary who was murdered in Zimbabwe in 1987 along with 10 others. In another sermon, he appeared to criticize gay and transgender people. 'There's people, especially in America, they don't know what sex they are,' he said. 'They don't know their sexual orientation, they're confused. The enemy has gotten so far into their mind and their soul.' Boelter and his wife, Jenny, were listed on a website as running a private security company, though it was not clear whether it had any clients. The company, Praetorian Guard Security Services, lists Boelter as the director of security patrols and his wife as president. Jenny Boelter was stopped Saturday morning by police officers near a convenience store in Onamia, Minnesota, roughly 70 miles north of the area of the shootings, according to Sheriff Kyle Burton of Mille Lacs County. The sheriff said other relatives were in the car, and a witness said he saw three children get out of the car during the stop. All were cooperative, and none was taken into custody, officials said. Advertisement The firm's website describes using Ford Explorer SUVs, 'the same make and model of vehicles that many police departments use.' On Saturday afternoon, police towed a Ford Explorer from outside Hortman's home. The website for Boelter's security company makes expansive claims about his work experience that could not immediately be verified, including that he had been 'involved with security situations' in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Federal tax forms show that Boelter and his wife once led a Christian nonprofit called Revoformation Ministries. An archived version of the group's website described Boelter as becoming an ordained minister in 1993. Boelter, the site said, had traveled to violent areas and had 'sought out militant Islamists in order to share the Gospel and tell them that violence wasn't the answer.' Boelter made similar claims during one of his sermons in Congo, saying he had been confronted by armed militants while distributing pamphlets in places like the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. How was the attack carried out? Authorities say the assassin disguised himself as a police officer -- wearing a ballistic vest, gloves and a mask -- before going to the lawmakers' homes in two Minneapolis suburbs early Saturday. After police responded to Hoffman's home, finding that he and his wife, Yvette, had both been shot, they decided to check on Hortman at home. There, they encountered the assailant, who they said fled on foot after an exchange of gunfire with officers around 3:30 a.m. Inside, police found Hortman and her husband, Mark, dead. Advertisement U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said in an interview that the gunman had a notebook with a list of names that included hers and those of other lawmakers, all of whom were Democrats. The list included about 70 potential targets, a federal law enforcement official said, including doctors, community and business leaders, and locations for Planned Parenthood and other health care centers. Some of the targets were in neighboring states. A search led police Sunday afternoon to Sibley County, a rural community southwest of Minneapolis, where they found what they believed was Boelter's vehicle near Green Isle -- roughly 10 minutes from his listed address. Officials said late Sunday that Boelter had been taken into custody. This article originally appeared in
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Trump directs ICE to expand deportations in Democratic-run cities, undeterred by protests
Trump's declaration comes after weeks of increased enforcement, and after Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump's immigration policies, said ICE officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump's second term. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up At the same time, the Trump administration has directed immigration officers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels, after Trump expressed alarm about the impact aggressive enforcement is having on those industries, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter who spoke only on condition of anonymity. Advertisement Protests over federal immigration enforcement raids have been flaring up around the country. Opponents of Trump's immigration policies took to the streets as part of the 'no kings' demonstrations Saturday that came as Trump held a massive parade in Washington for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. Saturday's protests were mostly peaceful. Advertisement But police in Los Angeles used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear out protesters after the event ended. Officers in Portland, Oregon, also fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse a crowd that protested in front of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building well into the evening. Trump made the call for stepped up enforcement in Democratic-controlled cities on social media as he was making his way to the Group of Seven economic summit in Alberta, Canada. He suggested to reporters as he departed the White House for the G7 on Sunday evening that his decision to deploy National Guard troops to Los Angeles was the reason the protests in that city went peacefully. 'If we didn't have the National Guard on call and ready, they would rip Los Angeles apart,' Trump said. The shift also come as Trump is grappling with the impact his mass deportation effort is having on key industries that rely on workers in the country illegally. Trump posted on his Truth Social site Thursday that he heard from hotel, agriculture and leisure industries that his 'very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them' and promised that changes would be made . That same day Tatum King, an official with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit, wrote to regional leaders telling them to halt investigations of the agriculture industry, including meatpackers, as well as of restaurants and hotels, according to the U.S. official.
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
President Trump directs ICE to expand deportations in large Democratic-run cities
President Trump directs ICE to expand deportations in large Democratic-run cities Show Caption Hide Caption 'No Kings' rallies across US draw big crowds to protest Trump Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets across the country in coordinated "No Kings" marches to protest President Trump. WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to ramp up efforts to detain and deport migrants from large Democratic-run cities, escalating his illegal immigration crackdown despite widespread protests against the policy. Trump called for an expanded deportation blitz in an evening June 15 post on Truth Social, challenging ICE officers to "do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History." His order came after large protests in response to ICE raids erupted in Los Angeles last week, prompting him to deploy the National Guard and Marines to quell rioters, and spread to cities across the country during the "No Kings" rallies on June 14. Trump presidency: Illegal border crossings at record lows as Trump crackdown spreads Trump said to achieve his deportation goals, "we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America's largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside." "These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens," he said. Trump said he wants ICE officers to focus on "our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role," adding that: "You don't hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!" "Now go, GET THE JOB DONE!" Trump added. 'Our farmers are being hurt badly': Trump vows changes to immigration crackdown to protect migrant farmers, hotel workers Trump sent a much different signal about his deportation aims last week when he promised future policy changes to protect migrant farmers, hotel workers, and others in the leisure industry who have been among those deported. Trump cited hearing from people in the farm and leisure industries concerned about worker shortages because of mass deportations. "Our farmers are being hurt badly," Trump said on June 12. "You know, they have very good workers. They've worked for them for 20 years. They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be, you know, great." Even before Trump's latest charge to ICE, the agency had dramatically expanded its deportation efforts after the White House demanded the agency increase its arrests of migrants in the country illegally, Reuters reported. Daily quotas increased from 1,000 arrests per day to 3,000. Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, said in late May that the administration had deported around 200,000 people over four months ‒ a total that lags behind the deportations during a similar period under former President Joe Biden. The White House has said the discrepancy is the result of fewer migrants coming to the border. Migrants seeking to cross the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped significantly during Trump's first five months of his second term. Border Patrol agents have seen their monthly encounters of migrants and asylum seekers drop to fewer than 10,000, down from more than 100,000 one year ago. Contributing: Reuters Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
