Suspect in Minnesota Attacks Is Arrested, Ending Manhunt (2025)

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“One man’s unthinkable actions have altered the state of Minnesota,” Gov. Tim Walz said at a news conference on Sunday night.

The suspect was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder, according to a criminal complaint obtained by The New York Times.

After what officials called the largest manhunt in the state’s history, investigators arrested him on Sunday near Green Isle, a small town about an hour southwest of Minneapolis, where he had a home with his wife and children. For much of Sunday, tactical teams had conducted searches in the area, where investigators found a vehicle and a hat that they believed belonged to the suspect. After one officer thought he saw Mr. Boelter running into the woods, the police converged on the area and found him in a field near his home.

Officials said that the suspect was armed when he was arrested, but that no force was used in the arrest.

The gunman had impersonated a police officer during the attacks, wearing a rubber mask and a bogus badge, officials said. He had a notebook that mentioned the names of about 70 potential targets that included both of the lawmakers. Officials said he had fired at officers responding to one of the homes before escaping.

Here’s what else to know:

• The victims: Ms. Hortman served as speaker of the Minnesota House for a six-year period that ended this year and helped pass several key policies on abortion rights, marijuana legalization and medical leave. Mr. Hoffman is a fourth-term state senator and leads the Senate’s Human Services Committee. Mr. Hoffman came out of a final surgery and was recovering along with his wife, who was also shot, Governor Walz said on Sunday. Read more ›

• The suspect: Mr. Boelter and his wife run a private security company that promotes the use of S.U.V.s similar to those used by police departments, according to its website. The couple also appears to have run a religious nonprofit. According to the suspect’s friend, he opposed abortion and had supported President Trump, and he previously served on a state work force development board with Mr. Hoffman. Read more ›

After lawmaker’s killing, questions loom over balance of power in Minnesota House.

The motives for the gunman are still unknown, and there has been no indication that the suspect, Vance Boelter, 57, was thinking about the balance of power when the police say he carried out his attacks at the homes of two lawmakers in the Minneapolis suburbs. The authorities believe he shot and killed Representative Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, and wounded State Senator John A. Hoffman, a fellow Democrat, and his wife, Yvette Hoffman.

As of Sunday, no public statements had been made about a timeline for filling the now-vacant House seat. Under state law, the governor is required to call a special election.

Matt Roznowski, the director of communications and public affairs for the House of Representative’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the state’s Democratic Party, said in an email on Sunday that “there is no urgency to fill the seat” because the next session doesn’t begin until next year.

In an email, a spokeswoman for Gov. Tim Walz’s office, Claire Lancaster, said it was too soon to say when a special election would be called.

The partisan makeup of the Minnesota House has been particularly delicate in recent months. Since March, the chamber had stood at 67 Democrats and 67 Republicans — an unusual deadlock that effectively required bipartisan negotiations or procedural agreements to pass legislation.

The Minnesota Legislature also includes 67 senators, according to the state’s website. The State Senate was also evenly divided after Kari Dziedzic, a Democratic senator, died shortly after the 2024 election, but a special election in early February gave Democrats a one-seat majority.

It is unclear when Mr. Hoffman, who remained in the hospital on Sunday, will return to his legislative duties, but he has many months to recover.

Democratic and Republican leaders alike have focused their public statements on honoring Ms. Hortman’s legacy and calling for the suspect to be brought to justice.

“I condemn in the strongest possible way the violence that took Melissa and Mark from us, and I call on every Minnesotan to reject it,” State Representative Lisa Demuth, a Republican and current Minnesota House speaker, said in a statement on social media. “Political violence is abhorrent and unacceptable, and my prayers are with the men and women in law enforcement who are working to stop this evil and bring the perpetrator to justice.”

When the police in Minnesota searched a vehicle registered to Vance Boelter, they found a 9-millimeter handgun, at least three AK-47 assault rifles, and a list of public officials and their addresses, according to the complaint.

Walz called for an end to political violence. “This cannot be the norm,” he said. “Now is the time for us to recommit to the core values of this country.”

According to the charging document against Vance Boelter, he knocked on the door of Sen. John Hoffman “and announced himself as a police officer before entering the house” and opening fire.

The suspect carried a notebook with dozens of targets.

Joseph H. Thompson, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, told reporters on Monday that officials had recovered hundreds of pages of the suspect’s writing across multiple notebooks that were full of plans, lists of names, surveillance efforts and “the home addresses and family members’ relationships with these elected officials.”

The elected officials he targeted were all Democrats, Mr. Thompson said. Abortion rights advocates were also among those mentioned in the lists of names. But Mr. Thompson said it was too soon to determine a motive.

Senator Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota, said the man’s lists included her and several other lawmakers, all of whom are Democrats. Minnesota’s other U.S. senator, Amy Klobuchar, was also named in the gunman’s writings, her office said.

At least three of Minnesota’s Democratic congresswomen were listed, according to a law enforcement officer: Representatives Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig.

The state attorney general, Keith Ellison, another Democrat, was also mentioned, his office said.

Other potential targets on the gunman’s lists were politicians from several states outside Minnesota, including Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin, said Drew Evans, the superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

The tally of names and locations was found among papers in a vehicle that was linked to the man and recovered by law enforcement officials. Other papers indicated possible plans to target “No Kings” protests, which were organized throughout the country on Saturday in response to the Trump administration’s policies.

Among the targets listed were abortion providers in Minnesota, according to a spokeswoman for Ms. Smith.

The Minnesota section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said its members had been left “saddened and horrified” by the attacks. “It is unacceptable that people from within our OB-GYN community must work and live in fear as a result of providing essential reproductive health care,” the organization said in a statement.

Planned Parenthood North Central States, which covers Minnesota, said it was working with local law enforcement to increase patrols at all of its centers. “Our doors will remain open,” Ruth Richardson, its president and chief executive, said in a statement.

Many lawmakers share their home addresses. Political violence is changing that.

But in the hours after the shootings, while police officers were still searching for the assassin, lawmakers across the country began to rethink their approach to privacy and safety. The Michigan State Police held security briefings for legislators. The police in Fairfax County, Va., increased patrols around lawmakers’ homes. And in North Dakota, officials decided by midday Saturday to scrub home addresses from legislator biography pages.

“In light of the tragedy in Minnesota, we quickly decided to remove all addresses until our leaders have time to assess the proper balance between transparency and safety of our elected officials,” John D. Bjornson, the director of the North Dakota Legislative Council, said in an email.

In interviews with lawmakers across the country, some said sharing their home address helped reassure constituents that they were part of the community and could be easily reached. But unlike governors and presidents, most state lawmakers have no special security protection when they are away from work. The country’s coarsening public discourse has left them to weigh difficult trade-offs.

“Part of the reason why my address is easily found is to make it clear that I actually live in my district,” said Stephanie Sawyer Clayton, a Democratic state representative in Kansas. “If you have a P.O. box, you don’t look authentic, right?”

“But for authenticity,” Ms. Clayton added, “you kind of pay that price of vulnerability.”

Though recent political violence has cut across party lines, both Minnesota lawmakers who were shot were Democrats, and the suspected assassin was said to be carrying a list of targets that was filled with more Democrats.

In Ohio, State Senator Casey Weinstein thanked his state’s Republican governor on Saturday for increasing security for lawmakers, a decision that the governor’s office declined to confirm.

“Honestly I’m struggling with this news,” Mr. Weinstein, a Democrat, wrote on Facebook after the Minnesota attacks. “I’m worried for my family. I worry I’m putting them in harm’s way by being in office. It’s a terrible feeling.”

In Michigan, State Representative Karen Whitsett said she had no plans to remove her home address from her campaign website. Having it there, she said, showed constituents in her Detroit-based district that “I’m right here, I’m with you” and “that I’m not disconnected.”

But Ms. Whitsett, a Democrat who sometimes votes with Republicans in her state’s closely divided Legislature, said she had faced threats over the years.

After the Minnesota attack, Ms. Whitsett said she decided to seek a permit to carry a concealed gun. Ms. Whitsett said she previously had such a permit and used it to carry a weapon inside the State Capitol, where she does not always feel safe. She plans to do so again.

“I’m not going to depend on security,” said Ms. Whitsett, who on Sunday attended a video briefing on legislator safety that the Michigan State Police scheduled after the Minnesota attacks.

Another Michigan state representative, Bill G. Schuette, a Republican, said he had purchased a home security system in recent years after angry people showed up at his house on multiple occasions. His address, he said, was required to be public under state law.

“You sign up in this business to be accessible to your constituents and to be a voice that’s always listening,” Mr. Schuette said. “You really have to be grateful and thankful for our brave women and men in law enforcement, and hopeful, too, that people will try and respect some personal boundaries.”

Lawmakers, of course, are hardly alone in having personal information widely exposed online, and even legislators who do not actively publish their addresses might be easily found with a quick Google search.

Some legislators also bristled at the idea that they might receive extra protections. In Michigan, Ms. Whitsett said many of her constituents live with a daily threat of violence that politicians have not done enough to address. And in Kansas, Ms. Clayton said that “I am no different or no more special than any other constituent of mine who goes to work and faces the risk of getting hurt or killed on the job.”

When lawmakers want to limit what personal information is available about them, there are limiting factors. Some campaign finance forms and other public documents list politicians’ addresses and phone numbers. And because elected officials must generally live in the districts they represent, there is a level of accountability in the public knowing where a lawmaker claims to live.

In North Dakota, State Senator Ryan Braunberger said he had been comfortable with his address being posted online before state officials decided to take it down this weekend. Mr. Braunberger, the Democratic leader in his chamber, said he had heard from the police in his home city of Fargo that they would be increasing patrols near legislators’ homes following the shootings near Minneapolis, about three hours away by car.

“Honestly I don’t feel unsafe today,” he said. “But I also refuse to live in that world of fear, because it only encourages the perpetrators. Because that’s what they’re trying to do, is incite fear.”

How a manhunt works, according to security experts.

Todd McGhee, a law enforcement and security analyst and former Massachusetts state trooper, said that officials typically use several avenues to track down suspects, including debit and credit card payments, social media posts and location data from cellphone towers.

Rob D’Amico, a retired F.B.I. agent and security expert, said the authorities would be looking for any vehicles the suspect could be driving, burner phones he could be using, accomplices he might have had and any information found on computers or devices left at his home.

Investigators are often hoping suspects will make errors that help reveal their locations. People on the run “are usually not thinking clearly,” Mr. McGhee said.

“They’ve had very strategic plans on their attack,” he added. “They’ll know the movements of their target. They’ll understand the best time of day and location as to where to attack. But after the attack, those strategic plans begin to erode.”

Mr. D’Amico said if the gunman had not previously planned his escape, a lack of sleep and pressure to avoid authorities could affect his decision-making.

“He could do dumb things, and sometimes they get caught when they do dumb things,” Mr. D’Amico said. “Or they could do desperate things, which can lead to more violent encounters.”

The fact that the gunman shot not only the lawmakers but their spouses could suggest that he is willing to harm anyone caught in the crossfire of his political targets, Mr. D’Amico said.

As of Sunday afternoon, there was a significant police presence near the rural area in Sibley County where the car believed to belong to Mr. Boelter was found. In rural areas, a suspect may remain hidden for longer, with fewer people around to contribute to the search, Mr. D’Amico said, but the lower population density makes it easier to use certain technologies, such as thermal imaging helicopters.

Though several high-profile manhunts in recent years may come to mind, including after the killing last year of the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare in Manhattan and after the 2023 shootings in Lewiston, Maine, in which 18 people died, Mr. D’Amico cautioned that each suspect thinks differently.

“You can’t compare,” he said.

Jonathan Wolfe contributed reporting.