MINNEAPOLIS (AP) 鈥 A federal grand jury indicted a man Tuesday on charges that he fatally shot a prominent Minnesota state representative and her husband and seriously wounded a state senator and his wife while he was allegedly disguised as a police officer.
The indictment handed up lists murder, stalking and firearms charges against . The murder counts in the deaths of and her husband, Mark, could carry the
鈥淭his political assassination, the likes of which have never occurred here in the state of Minnesota, has shook our state at a foundational level,鈥 acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said.
He said a decision on whether to seek the death penalty 鈥渨ill not come for several months鈥 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 Boelter with the same counts. But under federal court rules they needed a grand jury indictment to take the case to trial.
Prosecutors say Boelter, 57, who has lived in rural Sibley County south of Minneapolis, was driving a fake squad car, wearing a realistic rubber mask that covered his head 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.
Prosecutors allege he then stopped at the homes of two other lawmakers. One, in Maple Grove, wasn't home while a police officer may have scared him off from the second, in New Hope. Boelter then allegedly went to the Hortmans' home in nearby Brooklyn Park and killed both of them. Their dog 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, the complaint said. Boelter allegedly fled and left behind his car, which contained notebooks listing as potential targets with as well as five guns and a large quantity of ammunition.
Law enforcement officers Boelter about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from his rural home in Green Isle, after what authorities called the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history.
Sen. Hoffman is 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. Former President Joe Biden in the hospital when he was in town for the
Friends have described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with who to find work. At a hearing July 3, Boelter said he was 鈥渓ooking forward to the facts about the 14th coming out.鈥
In an interview 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.
鈥淵ou are fishing and I can鈥檛 talk about my case鈥鈥檒l say it didn鈥檛 involve either the Trump stuff or pro life,鈥 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.
Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris joined mourners at the Hortmans鈥 funeral June 28. Gov. Tim Walz, Harris鈥檚 running mate on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket, eulogized Melissa Hortman as 鈥渢he in Minnesota history.鈥
Hortman from 2019 until January and was a driving force as Democrats passed an of liberal priorities in 2023. She yielded the speakership to a Republican in a after the November elections left the House tied, and she took the title speaker emerita.
