The suspect wanted for killing a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband and shooting a state senator and his wife was arrested late Sunday night after a manhunt spanning two days and involving nearly 200 law enforcement officers.
Vance Boelter was arrested near his farm in Green Isle, Minn., late Sunday night. Boelter is accused of killing former Minnesota state Speaker Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark Hortman, at their home while posing as a police officer.
State Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife Yvette Hoffman were also shot at their home. They underwent surgery and are receiving care, Gov. Tim Walz (D) said. He called the attacks “politically motivated.”
The search for Boelter was renewed early Sunday morning after authorities found his car and cowboy hat not far from his residence. But even after speaking with his wife and relatives, investigators could not find more on him for over 10 hours.
After an officer spotted a man running into the woods, authorities confirmed Boelter’s presence in the area using an image from a trail camera.
Law enforcement set up a perimeter and closed the distance to him in about 90 minutes using a helicopter, Bruley said at a press conference on Sunday night. They used a drone to track him as he crawled through thick shrubs before he was arrested.
Boelter worked for a local security company called Praetorian Guard Security Services and claimed to have an extensive resume in several countries, including Eastern Europe, Africa, and parts of the Middle East, including the West Bank and Gaza.
More recently, he worked for two funeral homes in the Minneapolis area before going back to Africa. After he returned, he worked a job “extracting eyeballs from cadavers so they could be used for organ donation,” a roommate told the Washington Post.
Boelter had ties to several religious groups, and worked in Africa and the Palestinian territories to spread Christianity to “militant Islamists.” There is video on YouTube of him preaching to a large church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
His roommate told local news that Boelter had voted for President Trump and was “a strong supporter,” but called him a “very good guy.”
Law enforcement said Saturday they found a list of individuals, including Hortman, Hoffman, as well as Sen. Tina Smith (D) in Boelter’s car, as well as flyers for the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests.
All coordinated “No Kings” protests in Minnesota were canceled after state officials urged residents to avoid the demonstrations in the wake of the shooting. Thousands attended peacefully anyway.
