US prosecutors charged alleged shooter Vance Boelter with two counts of homicide within the deaths of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, in what officers known as a “murderous rampage” on Saturday morning.

This photograph made out there by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office exhibits Vance Luther Boelter, the person accused of assassinating the highest Democrat within the Minnesota House, as he was arrested late Sunday, June 15, 2025. (Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office through AP)

Boelter, 57, was apprehended Sunday night after a weekend manhunt that had the area on edge. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had supplied a $50,000 reward for data resulting in his seize. 

Hortman, the Democratic chief within the state House, and her husband, Mark, had been fatally shot Saturday at their residence in Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. John Hoffman, a Democratic Minnesota state senator, and his spouse, Yvette, had been wounded in a separate capturing at their residence that was additionally linked to the suspect, who police say arrived on the two properties posing as an officer.

In addition to the 2 federal counts of homicide with a firearm, Boelter faces two counts of stalking and two gun counts underneath US regulation. Before the federal expenses had been made public, he was booked into the Hennepin County Jail and held on state homicide expenses with bail of $5 million. 

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An agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation mentioned in a submitting that Boelter was caught with a listing of greater than 45 Minnesota state and federal public officers, specializing in Democrats, together with Hortman. 

“This is not a document that would be like a traditional manifesto that’s a treatise on all kinds of ideology and writings,” mentioned Drew Evans, superintendent of the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Instead, he known as it “a notebook with a lot of lawmakers and others that are listed,” together with “other thoughts.” 

The federal expenses might end in a demise sentence if Boelter is convicted. State prosecutors mentioned they intend to file expenses that would deliver a sentence of life with out parole.

Boelter appeared briefly in federal courtroom in St. Paul on Monday and didn’t enter a plea to the costs. A lawyer representing him from the Office of the Federal Defender declined to touch upon the costs.

Backdrop of political violence 

The shootings sparked concern in Minnesota on a day when protesters crammed the streets in cities throughout the US to oppose Republican President Donald Trump’s administration as he held a navy parade in Washington. The assaults renewed a deal with political violence that each main events have deplored for years. Threats in opposition to nationwide lawmakers in Washington elevated to 9,000 final 12 months from 1,700 in 2016, mentioned US Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat.

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In a message revealed by Klobuchar, Yvette Hoffman mentioned she had been shot eight instances and her husband, John, 9 instances. 

“We are both incredibly lucky to be alive,” Yvette Hoffman wrote. “There is never a place for this kind of political hate.”

A person carrying a flesh-colored latex masks, blue shirt, tactical vest, badge, gun and flashlight knocked on Senator Hoffman’s entrance door early Saturday, figuring out himself as a police officer, in accordance with police and FBI statements filed in courtroom. Boelter knocked on the door shouting “This is the police. Open the door,” in accordance with the FBI. 

When the Hoffmans observed Boelter was carrying a masks, they mentioned he wasn’t an actual police officer and Senator Hoffman tried to push him out the door. Boelter shot Hoffman “repeatedly,” then shot Yvette Hoffman, in accordance with filings.

The couple’s daughter known as 911, saying {that a} masked man had come to the door and shot each her dad and mom. A video surveillance recording confirmed a Ford SUV with “police-style lights” parked within the driveway.

Racing to Hortman’s residence

Boelter drove to the house of an unidentified public official in Maple Grove, repeatedly ringing the doorbell and ordering the occupants to open the door, in accordance with the FBI. No one was residence and Boelter left. Boelter then allegedly drove to the house of one other Minnesota consultant in New Hope. 

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An area police officer, dispatched to the house to make a security test, noticed Boelter in his pretend police automobile close by, considering he was an actual cop, in accordance with filings. Boelter didn’t reply to her makes an attempt to speak with him. The officer continued to the house and Boelter left.

Local officers had been additionally despatched to State Representative Hortman’s residence, the place they noticed Boelter shoot Hortman’s husband via the open entrance doorway, in accordance with filings. The officers exchanged hearth with Boelter, who ran inside the home after which fled, leaving the SUV behind. They discovered Hortman and her husband inside the home, shot useless.

Sometime after dawn Boelter allegedly texted his spouse and different members of the family: “Dad went to war last night… I don’t wanna say anymore because I don’t wanna implicate anybody.”

A search of the SUV yielded “at least three AK-47 assault rifles,” a handgun and a listing of names and addresses that included different public officers, in accordance with the police.

Authorities discovered Boelter crawling via the woods close to his residence in Sibley County, the Associated Press reported. They had earlier discovered a car he was utilizing deserted within the rural space, the AP mentioned.