June 17, 2025
A 57-year-old man has been arrested in Minnesota in connection with the killing of a married couple.
Melissa Hortman, 55, a state representative, and her husband, Mark, 58, were shot to death at their Brooklyn Park home on Saturday.
Media outlets report Hortman pushed for causes including environmental issues, reproductive rights, and stricter gun control.
Mark Hortman worked as a program manager for a company called nVent Electric.
Two additional victims, State Senator John Hoffman,60, along with his wife, Yvette, were shot multiple times at their home in Champlin, approximately 8 miles from the Hortman’s home in Brooklyn Park.
The husband and wife were both lawmakers and Democrats.
Both survived their injuries after having surgery at a nearby hospital.
In the early hours of the morning on Saturday, Brooklyn Park police were called out to the Hoffman's home.
Worried local lawmakers were being targeted, an officer decided to check on the Hortons, who lived nearby.
As the office pulled up outside the home, he saw what appeared to be an emergency police vehicle with flashing lights already at the scene.
A man in a police uniform, complete with a vest and taser, began shooting at police before running back into the Hortman's home and fleeing the scene on foot. They would later find out that he had been wearing a realistic latex mask that covered his entire head and neck. The mask resembled an older, bald, Caucasian male. The man was said to be standing at 6ft1 and weighing around 220lbs.
They would quickly discover he was not an officer, but a man allegedly posing as law enforcement to get into the homes of his targets.
Inside the fake police vehicle, police found what has been described by media outlets as a "manifesto," that included around 70 names, many of them state Democratic politicians, as well as the locations of various Planned Parenthood hubs. Police said they did not consider the document a manifesto as it did not include mentions of "ideology."
State Governor Tim Walz has referred to the shootings as a "politically motivated assassination".
"No Kings" posters were also found inside the vehicle, and urged members of the community not to attend the demonstrations. Despite organizers cancelling the event, many still showed up to demonstrate.
The No Kings protests took place on June 14, 2025, to protest Trumps policies.
Speaking of Hortman, Walz said: “Our state lost a great leader and I lost the dearest of friends. Speaker Hortman was someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humor, and a sense of service. She was a formidable public servant, a fixture, and a giant in Minnesota.”
Police soon had a name to put with the suspect: 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter, and a reward of up to $50,000 was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect was announced. He was also added to the FBI’s most wanted list.
The BBC reports that Vance Boelter is a religious missionary who spent time in both Africa and the Middle East, and was at one point a church pastor in Democratic Republic of Congo, a place he made multiple trips to over the years.
Aside from speeding tickets, Boelter appears to have no prior crimes on his record.
Boelter’s wife was detained and questioned in Onamia, a city in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota, after a routine traffic stop. Onamia is over 110 miles from the Boelter’s residence.
The following night, Police received a tip that the suspect was spotted somewhere in Green Isle, not far from his residence. He was tracked down in a wooded, rural area, and although he was armed, was arrested without resistance and the two-day manhunt came to an end. Over 20 SWAT teams were involved in the manhunt, and both infrared technology and drones were used in the search.
Boelter reportedly had worked as a political appointee, and served on the same state workforce development board as one of his "targets," John Hoffman. The connection between the two, if any, is unknown at the time of writing.
Superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Drew Evans, said of the connection: “There's certainly some overlap with some public meetings with Sen. Hoffman and the individual, but we don't know the nature of the relationship or if they actually knew each other.”
At this point in time, it is not known if the suspect and victims had met before.
Friends of the suspect received concerning text messages from Boelter, wherein he stated he would "be gone for a while," and "may be dead shortly." He told them he loved them and wished "it hadn't gone this way."
These messages were allegedly sent from a rented room in a home near 49th and Fremont. When security footage from the residence was reviewed, investigators saw Boelter on the footage dressed in street clothes and cowboy hat.
The United States Attorney's Office District of Minnesota said in a press release that Vance Boelter "has been charged by federal complaint with stalking and murdering Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, in addition to stalking and shooting Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife.”
July 08, 2025
