A guy who reportedly shot Democratic legislators in Minnesota on Saturday while impersonating a police officer is being sought by authorities. The man was employed by a security firm that advertised a fleet of police-style cars and other items that might have helped him pass for law enforcement.
Vance Boelter is suspected by authorities of killing a politician and her spouse and injuring another member and his wife. He left an apparent hit list with dozens of names in his car after exchanging gunfire with police outside the residence of one victim and then escaping the scene. A massive manhunt is currently underway to apprehend Boelter.
According to state officials, early on Saturday morning, police officers saw what looked like a police car with emergency lights flashing in the driveway of Representative Melissa Hortman’s residence, and they also saw what looked like an officer at the door leaving the house. That person fired a firearm at them right away and managed to get away.
Hortman was assassinated along with her spouse. Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were also shot at a neighboring residence, but they are recovering from surgery and are in stable condition.
Who was the suspect posing as a police officer?
According to the police, they are currently looking into the attackers’ motivation. The majority of the names on the list are Democrats or people connected to the abortion rights movement or Planned Parenthood. Leaders of Planned Parenthood and well-known legislators, including Sen. Tina Smith and Rep. Ilhan Omar, were on the list. Boelter also had anti-Trump protest flyers in his car, according to police, which sparked concerns that he could have planned to target those events.
Boelter did not address abortion rights in any of the religious speeches CNN reported, and he mostly avoided posting political content on his publicly accessible social media accounts. He seems to be harshly disparaging LGBTQ rights in one of his 2023 speeches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
As reported, Boelter and Hoffman were members of a state board. Boelter was appointed by Walz to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board in 2019, which is a committee of entrepreneurs that advises the state government on policy matters. The position was given to Boelter because of his “integrity, judgment, and ability,” according to a letter from Walz.
According to the company’s webpage, Boelter has served as director of security patrols for Praetorian Guard Security Services, which conducts “random armed patrols” of clients’ properties. It also implies that he may have had access to gear and uniforms that could help him pass for a police officer.
What was Melissa Hortman’s legacy and public service record?
According to her profile on the Minnesota Legislature website and the campaign website, Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman was more than just the state House’s top Democrat. She was a mother and wife whose husband was killed with her, a devoted volunteer who taught Sunday school and loved dogs, and a lawyer who was a Girl Scout leader and worked at her dad’s auto parts store.
Hortman had previously worked for then-Senators Al Gore and John Kerry after graduating from Boston College before returning to Minnesota to pursue her legal education at the University of Minnesota.
Hortman was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2004 and served as the representative for District 34B in the northern Minneapolis suburbs. Hortman is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). According to her legislative profile, she was DFL Leader at the time of her murder and Speaker of the House from 2019 to 2025.
In addition, Hortman served on what is now the Brooklyn Park Human Rights Commission, a body dedicated to fairness and inclusion in Brooklyn Park, the suburb where she resided and passed away, according to her campaign bio.
