A man accused of dressing up as a police officer and shooting two Minnesota state lawmakers in their homes – killing one and her husband – also showed up at the houses of two other legislators the same night intending to assassinate them too, authorities revealed on Monday.
Appearing in federal court in St Paul, Minnesota, on Monday, Boelter said he could not afford an attorney.
A hearing about whether Boelter should be detained in federal custody pending the outcome of his case was tentatively scheduled for 27 June.
Next, Thompson said, Boelter drove to the home of a Minnesota state representative in Maple Grove, where a doorbell camera captured him at 2.24am.
“He used the internet and other tools to find their addresses and names, the names of the family members.
On Monday, authorities disclosed that a man who allegedly pretended to be a police officer and shot two state lawmakers in Minnesota in their homes, killing one and her spouse, also showed up at the homes of two other lawmakers that same evening with the intention of killing them simultaneously.
Following an intense two-day manhunt, Vance Luther Boelter, 57, was apprehended on Sunday evening and charged by state prosecutors with the second-degree murder of Democratic Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their Brooklyn Park home early on Saturday.
In addition, he was accused of trying to kill state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their Champlin residence.
In federal court in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Monday, Boelter stated that he was unable to pay for legal representation. He was assigned to be represented by a federal public defender. On June 27, there was a provisional hearing regarding whether Boelter should remain in federal custody while his case was being handled.
The court appearance followed a late-morning press conference in which officials announced a separate 20-page federal indictment that could carry the death penalty for Hortman’s murder.
In addition to the early-morning assaults on the homes of Hortman and Hoffman, Boelter was witnessed at the residences of two other unidentified lawmakers, one of whom was a state senator and the other a state representative, in a “planned campaign of stalking and violence,” acting US attorney for the district of Minnesota Joe Thompson told reporters.
He said there was no one home at one of the properties. At the other, a policeman who had been called to conduct a wellness check confronted him and then left the area.
Thompson stated, “It is not hyperbole to say that his crimes are the stuff of nightmares.”.
Boelter stalked his victims like prey. He went to their residences, pretended to be a police officer, and then shot them in cold blood. “”.
The murder of Hortman at the last home he went to “was a political assassination,” he continued.
It’s a terrifying assault on our democracy and our way of life. Political violence has been on the rise in recent years, and I hope this serves as a reminder to everyone that anyone can disagree with you without being evil or needing to be killed for it. “”.
Thompson provided a chronology of the alleged outburst by Boelter, which started at the Hoffman residence. Boelter knocked on their door wearing a “hyper-realistic latex mask” and a black SUV that was disguised to look like a police car. When they opened the door and saw he was not who he claimed to be, he shot them both several times.
Both are expected to live, but they are still in the hospital in critical condition.
According to Thompson, Boelter then drove to a Minnesota state representative’s house in Maple Grove, where he was caught on camera at 2:24 a.m. by a doorbell. He departed while she was on vacation.
He then proceeded to a state senator’s residence, reaching there at approximately 2:36 a.m. Boelter’s car was parked a short distance away with its lights on when a New Hope police officer arrived.
According to Thompson, she thought he was a fellow officer who had already responded to the Hoffman shooting, but when she rolled down her window to talk to him, Boelter “just sat there and stared straight ahead” without saying anything.
She withdrew to the senator’s house to wait for colleagues, who came to discover him gone.
At last, he drove to the Hortmans’ Brooklyn Park residence, Thompson claimed. He was standing on the porch when the officers arrived at around 3:30 in the morning. When they got out of their cars, he started shooting at them, broke into the house, shot and killed Hortman and her husband, and then ran away.
“Boelter meticulously prepared his attack. According to Thompson, he conducted research on his victims and their families.
To locate the family members’ names, addresses, and other information, he used the internet and additional resources. He made notes about their residences’ locations and carried out surveillance on them. “”.
He stated that investigators discovered “dozens and dozens of names on hundreds of pages of documents” in the car that was recovered from the Hortman residence, but he was unable to speculate on a motive. According to Thompson, all of the targeted elected officials were Democrats.
The writings and list of names are thought to include information about medical facilities, abortion rights advocates, and well-known state and federal legislators and community leaders.
Following the shootings, Boelter used cash to buy a car from a stranger, according to an FBI affidavit. He then drove to Green Isle, which is approximately an hour west of Minneapolis, where a police officer reportedly saw him run into woodland.
About 20 different tactical teams searched inside a perimeter for him, according to Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley, and he was found after an hours-long operation that involved a helicopter.
After “a brief period of negotiation,” Boelter crawled out of the woods and was apprehended in a field, according to Bruley.
According to the affidavit, police allegedly discovered a handwritten confession in the car there, and when they searched his wife’s car, they discovered two handguns, passports, and $10,000 in cash.
Boelter texted his wife, according to the report: “Words cannot express how sorry I am for this circumstance. I don’t want any of you around because there will be some armed and trigger-happy people coming to the house. “.”.
At a press conference on Sunday, Drew Evans, the superintendent of Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, stated that Boelter’s wife and other family members were interviewed by police in relation to the shootings on Saturday, and that they were cooperative and not being held.
