Suspect in Minnesota lawmaker killing to appear in court on murder charges

A man accused of killing a Democratic state lawmaker while posing as a police officer is expected to appear in a Minnesota court on Monday afternoon on state murder charges, after a massive two-day manhunt ended with his arrest on Sunday night.

Vance Boelter, 57, is charged with fatally shooting Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, in their home on Saturday, in what Governor Tim Walz has characterized as a "politically motivated assassination."

Boelter is also accused of shooting and wounding another Democratic lawmaker, state Senator John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette in their home a few miles away.

"A moment in this country where we watch violence erupt, this cannot be the norm," Walz said after Boelter's arrest. "It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences."

Boelter was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder, a criminal complaint showed. He is expected to appear in Hennepin County criminal court at approximately 1 p.m. local time (1800 GMT), according to court officials.

Boelter is also expected to face federal charges. He is scheduled to make a separate appearance in Minneapolis federal court at 1:30 p.m., according to court records, though the specific charges were not yet known.

He impersonated a police officer while carrying out the shootings, wearing an officer's uniform and driving a Ford SUV with police-style lights, the complaint said.

Boelter fled on foot early on Saturday when officers confronted him at Hortman's Brooklyn Park home, according to authorities, who had warned residents to stay indoors for their own safety and unleashed what they called the state's largest manhunt in history.

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

Investigators on Sunday found a vehicle Boelter had been using in rural Sibley County, near his listed home address about an hour's drive southwest of Minneapolis. More than 20 SWAT teams combed the area, aided by surveillance aircraft, officials said. Boelter, who was armed, crawled from a wooded area and surrendered to police in a field with no shots fired.

The operation to capture Boelter drew on the work of hundreds of detectives and included a wide range of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, Brooklyn Park police Chief Mark Bruley said during a news conference on Sunday.

The killing was the latest in a series of high-profile episodes of political violence across the country, including a 2022 attack on former Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband at their home, the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last year and an arson attack at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's house in April.

'Gutted and devastated'

The Minnesota attacks began early on Saturday, when the Hoffmans were shot multiple times at their home in Champlin.

After learning that a lawmaker had been shot, a police sergeant in nearby Brooklyn Park dispatched officers to the Hortmans' home as a precaution. The arriving officers came across Boelter at the house and exchanged fire with him before he fled, according to the complaint.

Officials have not publicly identified a motive. Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar said during an NBC appearance on Sunday that the suspect's target list showed that his opposition to abortion was one motivating factor.

Klobuchar shared on social media a text message from Yvette Hoffman on Sunday evening that said her husband, John, was "enduring many surgeries right now." He was shot nine times, and she was shot eight times, the message said.

"We are both incredibly lucky to be alive," she wrote. "We are gutted and devastated by the loss of Melissa and Mark."