Federal grand jury indicts man accused of killing former Minnesota House
Speaker Melissa Hortman
[July 16, 2025]
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man indicted Tuesday on charges he fatally shot the
Democratic leader in the Minnesota state House and her husband, and
wounded another lawmaker and his wife, confessed to the crimes in a
rambling handwritten letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, but didn’t say
why he targeted the couples, prosecutors said.
Vance Boelter also wrote in the letter that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had
approached him about killing the state’s two U.S. senators, fellow
Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith.
Asked by a reporter if all that was a fantasy, acting U.S. Attorney
Joseph Thompson replied: “Yes, I agree.”
“There is little evidence showing why he turned to political violence
and extremism,” Thompson said. “What he left were lists: politicians in
Minnesota, lists of politicians in other states, lists of names of
attorneys at national law firms.”
The indictment handed up murder, stalking and firearms charges against
Boelter. The murder counts in the deaths of former Democratic House
Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, could carry the federal
death penalty. The indictment also charged Boelter with shooting and
wounding a state senator and his wife, and attempting to shoot their
adult daughter.
Thompson said a decision on whether to seek the death penalty “will not
come for several months” and will be up to U.S. Attorney General Pam
Bondi. Minnesota abolished its state death penalty in 1911, but
President Donald Trump's administration says it intends to be aggressive
in seeking capital punishment for eligible federal crimes.
Prosecutors initially charged Boelter with the same six counts. But
under federal court rules they needed a grand jury indictment to take
the case to trial. His arraignment, where he could enter a plea, will
probably be scheduled for later in the week, Thompson said
Boelter’s federal defender, Manny Atwal, did not immediately return
messages seeking comment on the indictment and the new allegations.
Political extremism as a motive
Thompson also disclosed new details at a news conference. He said
investigators had found the handwritten letter, which was addressed to
the FBI chief, in a car Boelter abandoned near his home.
"In the letter, Vance Boelter claims that he had been trained by the
U.S. military off the books and he had conducted missions on behalf of
the U.S. military in Asia, the Middle East and Africa,” Thompson said.
The letter doesn’t specifically say though why he targeted the Hortmans
and Hoffmans.
Boelter's political and religious views
Friends have described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with
politically conservative views who had been struggling to find work. At
a hearing July 3, Boelter said he was “looking forward to the facts
about the 14th coming out.”
In an interview published by the New York Post on Saturday, Boelter
insisted the shootings had nothing to do with his opposition to abortion
or his support for Trump, but he declined to discuss why he allegedly
killed the Hortmans and wounded the Hoffmans.
“You are fishing and I can’t talk about my case…I’ll say it didn’t
involve either the Trump stuff or pro life,” Boelter wrote in a message
to the newspaper via the jail’s messaging system.
Boelter also faces state murder and attempted murder charges in Hennepin
County, but the federal case will go first.
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Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, Joe Thompson, speaks to
reporters at a news conference on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in
Minneapolis about the grand jury indictment handed up against Vance
Boelter, alleging that Boelter fatally shot former Minnesota House
Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and seriously wounded a
state senator and his wife. (Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune via AP)
Other details of the case
Prosecutors say Boelter, 57, who has lived in rural Sibley County
south of Minneapolis, was disguised as a police officer, driving a
fake squad car, wearing a realistic rubber mask and wearing tactical
gear around 2 a.m. on June 14 when he went to the home of Sen. John
Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in the Minneapolis suburb
of Champlin. He allegedly shot the senator nine times, and Yvette
Hoffman eight times, but they survived. He also allegedly tried to
kill their adult daughter, Hope, but they pushed her out of the way
and she was not hit.
Prosecutors allege he then stopped at the homes of two other
lawmakers. One wasn't home while a police officer may have scared
him off from the other target. Boelter then allegedly went to the
Hortmans' home in nearby Brooklyn Park and killed both of them.
Their dog was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized.
Brooklyn Park police, who had been alerted to the shootings of the
Hoffmans, arrived at the Hortman home around 3:30 a.m., moments
before the gunman opened fire on the couple, court documents said.
Boelter allegedly fled and left behind his car, which contained
notebooks listing dozens of Democratic officials as potential
targets with their home addresses, as well as five guns and a large
quantity of ammunition.
Thompson said the gun used to shoot the Hoffmans was found near the
Hortman home, while the gun used to shoot the Hortmans was recovered
from a pond near their home a few days later.
Law enforcement officers finally captured Boelter about 40 hours
later, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from his rural home in Green
Isle, after what authorities called the largest search for a suspect
in state history.
Remembering the victims
Sen. Hoffman is out of the hospital and is now at a rehabilitation
facility, his family announced last week, adding he has a long road
to recovery. Yvette Hoffman was released a few days after the
attack.
Hope Hoffman said in a statement Tuesday that she was relieved that
Boelter will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
“Though I was not shot physically, I will now forever coexist with
the PTSD of watching my parents be nearly shot dead in front of me
and seeing my life flash before my eyes with a gun in my face,” she
said.
Hortman led the House from 2019 until January and was a driving
force as Democrats passed an ambitious list of liberal priorities in
2023. She yielded the speakership to a Republican in a power-sharing
deal after the November elections left the House tied, and she took
the title speaker emerita.
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Associated Press reporter Ed White in Detroit contributed to this
report.
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