Suspect charged with second-degree murder for Minnesota legislators’ shooting

Minneapolis  — A huge two-day manhunt ended on Sunday with the arrest of Vance Boelter, 57, for allegedly killing a Minnesota Democratic state legislator and her husband while posing as a police officer, governor Tim Walz said.

Boelter allegedly shot dead Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, in their home on Saturday — a crime Walz characterised as a “politically motivated assassination”.

Authorities said Boelter also allegedly shot and wounded another Democratic legislator, state senator John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette at their home a few kilometres away.

“After a two-day manhunt, two sleepless nights, law enforcement have apprehended Vance Boelter,” Walz told a news conference. “One man’s unthinkable actions have altered the state of Minnesota.

“A moment in this country where we watch violence erupt, this cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences. Now is the time for us to recommit to the core values of this country, and each and every one of us can do it.”

Walz said Hoffman, who had been hit with nine bullets, had come out of his final surgery and was moving towards recovery.

Boelter has links to evangelical ministries and claimed to be a security expert with experience in the Gaza Strip and Africa, according to online postings and public records reviewed by Reuters.

He was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder, the criminal complaint showed.

Three of those charges are punishable with jail terms of up to 40 years, according to the complaint unsealed on Sunday.

Boelter had been impersonating a police officer while carrying out the shootings, wearing an officer’s uniform and driving a Ford SUV with police-style lights, according to the Hennepin County criminal complaint.

Boelter fled on foot early on Saturday when officers confronted him at Hortman’s Brooklyn Park home, said authorities who had warned residents to stay indoors for their own safety and unleashed the state’s biggest manhunt.

When police searched Boelter’s SUV after the shootings they discovered three AK-47 assault rifles, a 9-mm handgun, and a list of other public officials that including their addresses, the criminal complaint showed.

Working on a tip that Boelter was near his home in the city of Green Isle, more than 20 SWAT teams combed the area, aided by surveillance aircraft, officials said. Boelter was armed but surrendered with no shots fired.

“The suspect crawled to law enforcement teams and was placed under arrest,” Lt-Col Jeremy Geiger of the Minnesota state patrol told the briefing. “The suspect was taken into custody without any use of force.”

The operation to capture Boelter, drawing on the work of hundreds of detectives and a wide range of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, was the largest manhunt in state history, Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley said.

“Now begins the hard work of looking at what the motive is,” Bruley said.

The killing was the latest episode of high-profile US political violence.

Such incidents range from a 2022 attack on former Democratic US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband at their home, to an assassination bid on then Republican presidential Donald Trump last year, and an arson attack at Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s house in April. 

Reuters