Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
The Violence and the 43-Hour Manhunt
Around 2 a.m. Saturday, a black Ford SUV affixed with phony police lights approached the Champlin home of state Sen. John Hoffman. Surveillance footage shows Minnesota man Vance Boelter—wearing a mask, police vest, and badge while toting a gun and flashlight—knock on the door, announcing himself as a cop. Boelter entered the house, where he allegedly shot John Hoffman nine times and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, eight times; remarkably, both survived their injuries. Boelter raced away in his SUV.
After Champlin PD alerted Brooklyn Park PD to the Hoffman shooting, the latter department "proactive[ly]" dispatched police to the home of state Sen. Melissa Hortman, located five miles away in Brooklyn Park. (The Hoffmans' daughter, Hope, placed a 911 call after her parents were shot.) At 3:35 a.m., the responding officers arrived to discover Boelter's SUV in the driveway of the Hortman residence. They reportedly watched him shoot Melissa Hortman's husband, Mark Hortman, through the front door. Boelter exchanged gunfire with the police, before eventually escaping through the rear of the house. The Hortmans were found dead inside.
In the SUV, which Boelter had left behind, cops retrieved three AK-47 rifles, a 9mm handgun, flyers reading "NO KINGS," an apparent reference to Saturday's nationwide protests against President Donald Trump, and a "hit list" that includes the names of 60+ Democratic politicians and several reproductive health care clinics. (Alpha News published the list.) Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans had “every confidence this [violence] would have continued" if Boelter hadn't been forced to flee without his SUV. That morning Boelter visited the homes of four total Minnesota politicians with the intent to kill, according to U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, and reportedly convinced one New Hope officer he was a cop. Federal investigators produced these evidence photos Monday:
The "largest manhunt in state history" stretched from early Saturday into Sunday evening, as hundreds of local, state, and federal law enforcement officials combed the Twin Cities metro in pursuit of Boelter. Early Saturday Boelter was spotted making a $2,200 withdrawal by U.S. Bank security cameras in Robbinsdale, per the criminal complaint (read the full doc here), and the following afternoon law enforcement found an abandoned Buick, one the suspect had allegedly just purchased, a couple miles from his home. Inside the sedan, investigators obtained a letter from a person claiming to be "Dr. Vance Luther Boelter," in which the author admits to being "the shooter at large in Minnesota." They also procured a cowboy hat resembling the one Boelter wore to U.S. Bank.
Around 7 p.m. Sunday, a Sibley County resident produced trail camera footage that “was consistent with Boelter,” according to Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher. (Here's hoping that resident scores the $50,000 FBI reward.) Earlier today, Fox 9 acquired the trail cam image that placed Boelter:
Armed with drones, a helicopter, and infrared technology, SWAT teams honed in on the wooded area surrounding Boelter's property. Boelter "eventually surrendered peaceably after evading the SWAT teams" for about an hour, Fletcher says.
The “complex and dangerous manhunt," as Gov. Tim Walz phrased it, ended with law enforcement pulling a handcuffed Boelter from a ditch one mile from his home. The alleged assassin, 57, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder, though Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says her office will charge Boelter with first-degree murder. He also faces federal charges of murder, stalking, and shooting.
RIP Rep. Melissa Hortman and Husband Mark Hortman; Sen. John Hoffman and Wife Yvette Hoffman "Incredibly Lucky to Be Alive"
Loving tributes to state Rep. Melissa Hortman have been flooding in since her death on Saturday. Hortman, 55, was “the most consequential speaker in state history," Gov. Tim Walz tells reporters. "I respect a lot of elected officials, but I admire few," writes Minnesota Reformer editor J. Patrick Coolican. "I admired Melissa Hortman." Here's Sen. Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) speaking to MinnPost: “She was a frustrating opponent because she was so good… She was very smart and very focused.” And here's Majority Leader Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul) via a prepared statement: “I will miss her, her mirthful eyes, her sharp humor, and her partnership… My heart breaks for her House colleagues and staff. My heart breaks for all of us.” The Star Tribune's Christopher Vondracek wrote this lovely remembrance of Hortman, who's survived by two children. (Melissa Hortman's brother, Patrick Haluptzok, launched a GoFundMe yesterday to help the adult Hortman kids, Colin and Sophie, "cover the expenses this tragedy has incurred.")
A former classmate remembers Mark Hortman as "kind" and "always happy." Eden Prairie nonprofit Helping Paws Inc. shared a photo of Melissa Hortman with her dog Gilbert, a golden retriever she had trained as a service dog; People magazine reports that Gilbert had to be euthanized after suffering gunshot wounds during Saturday's attack.
Gov. Tim Walz praised Hope Hoffman for "[saving] countless lives" by calling 911 after her parents were attacked. That call spurred law enforcement to check on the Hortman residence, according to charging documents. "My aunt threw herself on her daughter, using her body as a shield to save her life," Mat Ollig, a nephew of the Hoffmans, wrote Saturday on Facebook. Incredibly, it appears both Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, will survive their many bullet wounds. Over the weekend, Yvette Hoffman wrote that her husband isn't “out of the woods,” but he is in stable condition after coming out of surgery. She shared this powerful image from her own hospital bed last night:
“John and I are both incredibly lucky to be alive. We continue our healing journey and are humbled by the outpouring of love and support our family has received from across the state and nation,” Yvette Hoffman wrote in a statement Sunday, expressing her "deep and profound" gratitude for law enforcement and the public. "There is never a place for senseless political violence and loss of life. We are devastated by the loss of Melissa and Mark, and our hearts go out to all those who knew and loved them both. We are always at our best when we unite together.”
Vance Boelter: Who Is the Alleged Assassin?
A bizarre portrait of the accused assassin, 57-year-old Green Isle resident Vance Boelter, is beginning to take shape.
On one hand, you have friends and associates describing Boelter, who's married with five children, as mild-mannered. On the other, you hear about an InfoWars-listening evangelical Christian who railed against LGBTQ+ people and passionately opposed abortion, the New York Times reports. ("Suspect showed few signs of political extremism before lawmaker shootings," reads a curious Strib headline.)
Per his LinkedIn, Boelter's professional experience includes stints managing a 7-Eleven in Minneapolis (where there are no 7-Elevens), working in the food industry for Nestle, Johnsonville, and Del Monte, and serving as CEO of a Democratic Republic of Congo-based security company called Red Lion Group. “[Red Lion Group] wasn’t a reality,” friend/roommate David Carlson tells the Star Tribune. “It was like a goal he had but it was never realized. He bought a couple of cars and maybe some uniforms. It was never a real company.”
The Strib reports that Boelter once enjoyed apparent financial security. He was named to the Governor’s Workforce Development Group by two consecutive DFL governors, and he owned property in multiple states. In recent years, however, Boelter transported corpses for a funeral home "to make ends meet," the Strib reports, while trying to cobble together his security company; he lived part time with roommates in north Minneapolis to be closer to work. Boelter “just gave up on life for some reason,” Carlson tells the Times.
Boelter allegedly sent a group text to his wife and other family members reading, “Dad went to war last night…. I don’t wanna implicate anybody," according to a criminal affidavit. His wife, Jennifer Lynee Boelter, was detained with "several other relatives" Sunday in Mille Lacs County; a search of her vehicle produced two handguns, $10,000 cash, and passports, the affidavit states.
Misinformation Explosion
As if it needed any additional exposing, our society's tenuous grip on perceiving reality and processing facts has been further exposed by the Vance Boelter saga. Social media users wasted zero spraying misinformation across the internet, much of it wielded to promote political agendas.
PolitiFact does a nice job debunking some of the wilder claims, like one perpetuated by right-wing creep Michael Cernovich that Gov. Tim Walz “ordered a hit” over resentments that the Minnesota Legislature took health care away from undocumented immigrants. And the Minnesota Reformer's J. Patrick Coolican authored an impassioned essay centered around this vile cyclone of misinformation, concluding...
Right-wing influencers marred Hortman’s death and smeared Walz on a pile of lies. In a different, saner world, they would be humiliated and slink away. But the smart money is that during the next moment of national crisis and mourning, they will again lie for profit.
The current national crisis isn't inspiring any grace from the White House. President Trump said Sunday on ABC News that he "may" call Walz to discuss the tragedy, adding that he finds the governor "terrible" and "grossly incompetent." As of late Monday afternoon, the president hadn't called.
