Updated June 16, 2025 at 4:08 PM EDT
MINNEAPOLIS — Authorities in Minnesota said Monday that the man arrested in a Saturday attack that killed one state lawmaker and left another wounded had a "hit list" of 45 elected officials — all Democrats.
"Political assassinations are rare. They strike at the very core of our democracy," said acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson for the district of Minnesota. The details of what happened, he said, are "even worse. They are truly chilling. His crimes are the stuff of nightmares."
Vance Boelter, 57, was apprehended on Sunday night after what Brooklyn Park police Chief Mark Bruley called "the largest manhunt in state history."
Thompson says the suspect went to the homes of four Minnesota state lawmakers "with the intent to kill them." He said Boelter was disguised as a police officer, drove a black SUV with emergency lights turned on, and had a license plate that said "police." He carried a 9mm handgun, wore a black tactical vest and was disguised with a realistic silicone mask. Thompson says the suspect banged on the lawmakers' front doors in the middle of the night.
"This was a targeted attack against individuals who answered the call to public service," said FBI special agent in charge Alvin Winston. "Let me say this clearly: political violence has no place in this country."
Authorities found "voluminous writings" in the suspect's vehicle and at his home. They theorize he'd been planning and researching lawmakers for several months. Thompson says, as of now, it's unclear why the alleged gunman carried out the attacks.
Boelter has been charged with state and federal charges of murder, attempted murder and other crimes. He's being held in federal custody.
Bruley said at a Sunday night press conference that officers had been searching the area of Boelter's property near the town of Green Isle when one thought they saw him "running into the woods." After about an hour and a half, with the help of multiple SWAT teams and a State Patrol helicopter, authorities closed in on him and were "able to call him out to us."
"Where he was ultimately taken into custody was in a field," Bruley said, adding that Boelter was armed at the time.
Boelter was the subject of a days-long man-hunt involving hundreds of local, state and federal law enforcement after the shocking deaths of Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. Officials say the couple were shot and killed in their Brooklyn Park, Minn., home by a man impersonating a police officer.
Earlier that same morning, Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot at their home in nearby Champlin, Minn. In a statement shared with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Sunday night, Yvette said John "is enduring many surgeries right now and is closer every hour to being out of the woods."
"He took 9 bullet hits," she wrote. "I took 8 and we are both incredibly lucky to be alive."
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension superintendent Drew Evans told reporters on Sunday that Boelter had been charged with the Hortmans' murders as well as the shooting of the Hoffmans. He said the FBI and and U.S. Attorney's Office are reviewing whether to bring additional federal charges.
What happened on Saturday
Police say they initially responded to the shooting at Hoffman's house, and then went to Hortman's home. There, they saw a car with emergency lights out front, and a man at the door dressed in all blue with black body armor. Officials say that man shot at police, but was able to get away.
Authorities have yet to announce a possible motive for the attacks, but Minn. Gov. Tim Walz called the shootings "an act of targeted political violence."
At a news conference Saturday, state police said they found a list of individuals inside what they say is Boelter's vehicle. Hortman and Hoffman were on that list along with other lawmakers, including U.S. Senator Tina Smith and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who are also both Democrats.
Evans said Sunday that if officers hadn't encountered Boelter at Hortman's house, forcing him to abandon his vehicle, "I have every confidence that this would have continued throughout the day."
Officials also said they found "No Kings" flyers in the car, a reference to the anti-Trump protests that happened around the country Saturday. Minnesota state officials urged residents to avoid the gatherings, though many still attended and the protests remained largely peaceful.
Other protests across the U.S. also remained largely peaceful, though not without incident: Police in Virginia arrested a man for recklessly driving his car through a crowd gathered to protest, hitting one person. In Texas, another man was arrested for making threats against state lawmakers there.
And on Sunday, Salt Lake City police announced the death of an "innocent bystander" who had been shot at a downtown protest, allegedly by a member of the event's peacekeeping team who had been aiming at a different target: a person brandishing a rifle at demonstrators.
A backdrop of political violence
The shootings in Minnesota are part of a string of high-profile political violence across the country in recent years. In April, for example, a man allegedly set fire to Penn. Gov. Josh Shapiro's home and faces charges including attempted murder, terrorism and aggravated arson.
Last year, the Brennan Center for Justice, a policy think tank, released a report saying nearly half of the state lawmakers it surveyed had experienced threats or attacks in recent years. At the federal level, the U.S. Capitol Police has documented a spike in threats against members of Congress.
And last summer, President Trump, who has often been criticized for stoking the intense emotions that can lead to political violence in the first place, survived an assassination attempt that left his ear bloodied and killed a person in the crowd.
In a post on social media, Trump condemned the shootings in Minnesota, saying that "such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America."
NPR's Meg Anderson reported from Minneapolis, Rachel Treisman in Washington, D.C., and Russell Lewis in Birmingham, Ala.
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