Feds: Vance Boelter acted alone in lawmaker attacks, also targeted senator's daughter
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Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor said Tuesday that investigators have found no evidence to indicate that Vance Boelter had help when he allegedly killed former DFL Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark last month.
Boelter, 57, is also charged with shooting and wounding DFL state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette earlier the same night. Both have since left the hospital.
A newly returned grand jury indictment includes the same six counts of murder, stalking, and firearms charges that prosecutors outlined in their original criminal complaint. The indictment also lists Hope Hoffman as Boelter’s fifth intended target.
At a news conference, Acting Minnesota U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said that the couple shielded their daughter from the gunfire.
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“We now know that Vance Boelter not only shot at Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, but he also shot at and attempted to kill their daughter Hope Hoffman,” Thompson said. “Both John and Yvette acted with incredible bravery to put themselves between Boelter’s bullets and their daughter.”
“How I didn’t get grazed is nothing short of dumb luck,” Hope Hoffman said in a statement. “I’m grateful I happened to be at my parents’ house to be able to call 911. Had I not been, they wouldn’t be here. My parents saved me, and we saved each other.”
Hope Hoffman’s 911 call from their Champlin home prompted police in Brooklyn Park to visit the Hortmans’ home for a safety check. An officer fired at but did not strike Boelter as he allegedly charged into the house while shooting the couple, according to a newly-unsealed federal search warrant for security camera footage from the Hoffmans’ home. The document includes additional details about the case — including a letter that Boelter wrote to the FBI.
It’s handwritten in blue ink on what appears to be the back of a spiral-bound calendar. Addressed to FBI director Kash Patel, the writer introduces himself as “Dr. Vance Luther Boelter” and says “I am the shooter at large in Minnesota involved in the 2 shootings.”
Authorities said that the letter, some details of which had been reported previously, was found in a Buick sedan that Boelter bought hours after the shootings in north Minneapolis and abandoned close to his home outside of Green Isle, Minn.
Boelter writes that he was trained by the U.S. military “off the books” and that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz “wanted me to kill [Democratic U.S. Senators] Amy Klobushar [sic]” and Tina Smith, so that Walz could run for Senate.
“Boelter claims in the letter that he wanted nothing to do with Governor Walz’s plan, and that he would go public if he insisted,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson at a Tuesday news conference in Minneapolis. “Boelter claims that people threatened to hurt his family if he didn’t participate in this plan to murder Senators Klobuchar and Smith.”
Thompson said that investigators have not found any evidence that Boelter targeted the senators.
The prosecutor also noted Boelter took time to plan the attacks.
In the search warrant, FBI Special Agent Andrew Bilbrey writes that on the evening before the June 14 shootings, a man in a rain jacket with his hood up was recorded on the Hortmans’ security video walking around the side and back of their home. The man didn’t approach the house from the driveway, and walked straight onto the lawn and appeared to be casing the property or planning an exit strategy.
Bilbrey writes that the man was seen wearing the same jacket in video recorded several hours earlier near Boelter’s rental home in north Minneapolis carrying body armor and a duffel bag to a black SUV.
Security video from the Hortmans’ house shows Boelter approach their front door wearing a silicone mask and dark brown wig and carrying a yellow gun on his chest.
After ringing the doorbell, Boelter shouted “Police. Welfare check.”
When Mark Hortman answered the door, Boelter allegedly shined a flashlight in his eyes and said that there had been reports of shots fired.
“Good God, I was asleep,” Mark Hortman replied. Moments later he asked for Boelter’s name and badge number.
“Nelson, 286,” Boelter replied.
At this point investigators say that Boelter fired a volley of shots at Mark Hortman, charged past him into the house, and shot Melissa Hortman “several times at close range” as she attempted to escape upstairs. Boelter then fled out the back door.
“Sounds of extreme distress can be heard” from Gilbert, the Hortmans’ golden retriever, Agent Bilbrey writes, adding that officers found the dog in the backyard suffering from gunshot injuries. FBI agents took Gilbert to a veterinarian, but the dog had to be euthanized.
Investigators also revealed Tuesday that about four days after the shootings, law enforcement recovered a 9mm handgun from a pond near the Hortmans’ home. Thompson said that Boelter used that weapon, which he purchased in 1997, to shoot the Hortmans.
Authorities said previously that they found a disassembled 9mm pistol that Boelter had purchased in 2000 several blocks from the Hortmans’ house along with three magazines. Thompson said Boelter used that gun to attack the Hoffmans.
Thompson added that as part of the indictment the grand jury also issued a notice of special findings, which is the first step in a process that the Justice Department uses to determine if the death penalty is appropriate.
He said that a decision on whether to seek capital punishment is “months away” and will ultimately be come from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi along with the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office and the victims’ families.
