40 hours of violence and fear as gunman stalks Minnesota politicians

By TIM SULLIVAN and STEVE KARNOWSKI MINNEAPOLIS AP Violence and fear swept through towns in an arc around Minneapolis for more than hours over the weekend as a man seemingly intent on sowing political devastation killed one Minnesota state lawmaker and left another bleeding from nine bullet wounds Related Articles These Colorado population lands could be eligible for sale under Republican budget bill Israel says it killed a top Iranian general as Trump warns people to flee Iranian capital US and UK announce a agreement deal but steel imports are still being negotiated The Trump family s next venture a mobile phone company Medicaid individual territory soundness insurance would be harder to get in Colorado under GOP bill The attacks sparked the largest manhunt in Minnesota history with heavily armed officers in full combat gear riding armored vehicles through suburban streets and country roads ending in the arrest of Vance Boelter a -year-old father of five and sometime Christian pastor known for his deeply conservative beliefs but whose friends never saw him as an extremist From a state that has long prided itself on political civility the attacks rippled across the country as frightened political leaders worried that America s divides could cost them their lives This was a political assassination which is not the word we use very often in the United States let alone in Minnesota acting U S Attorney Joseph Thompson notified reporters Monday It s a chilling attack on our democracy on our way of life Saturday June a m Champlin Minnesota The black SUV s exigency lights were flashing when it pulled up to the brick split-level home in the quiet middle-class Minneapolis suburb The maple tree in the front yard was lush with summer leaves The man got out of the car wearing tactical clothing body armor and what looked like a police badge He was carrying a mm Beretta pistol He knocked loudly and repeatedly shouted This is the police open the door Later even law enforcement leaders mentioned they would have held he was a police officer About a m Champlin The couple who lived at the Champlin home Democratic state Sen John Hoffman and his wife Yvette opened the door to a flashlight shining in their faces There had been a review of a shooting in the house Boelter described them But when he eventually lowered the flashlight Yvette Hoffman could see he was wearing a realistic mask that covered his entire head In the confrontation that followed he shot both repeatedly The next morning nine bullet holes could be seen in their front door Bullet holes mark the front door of the house of Minnesota state Sen John Hoffman and his wife who were shot earlier in the day Saturday June in Champlin Minn AP Photo Bruce Kluckhohn Police responded within minutes after a call from the Hoffman s adult daughter who also lives in the house The legislator and his wife were rushed to a nearby hospital a m Maple Grove A little more than miles away defense camera footage proved Boelter still in his mask and tactical clothing holding a flashlight as he rang the doorbell at the home of someone who government have so far only identified as Inhabitants Official This is the police Open the door he revealed loudly We have a warrant Boelter was traveling with a list of about names including prominent state and federal lawmakers locality leaders and abortion-rights advocates according to two law enforcement agents who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the ongoing examination The federal affidavit says the list was composed of mostly or all Democrats No one was at the Maple Grove home Boelter soon left But he had plenty of other targets Boelter had attentively planned his attacks in advance making notes about targets families and conducting surveillance on their homes Thompson commented Boelter stalked his casualties like prey he stated About a m New Hope Roughly miles away in another suburb just north of Minneapolis Boelter drove to the home of Democratic state Sen Ann Rest By then law enforcement was starting to worry about local legislators and New Hope police dispatched an officer to do a safety check at Rest s home That officer determined what she thought was a police truck already doing a check parked down the street from the house When the officer tried to speak to Boelter he stared straight ahead and didn t respond The officer then drove to Rest s home and after seeing no trouble waited for backup and returned to where Boelter had been parked But by then he was gone Around a m Brooklyn Park An off-duty sergeant with the Brooklyn Park police was leaving the station when he heard about the shooting at Hoffman s house Hey drive by Melissa Hortman s house and just check on the house would you he narrated a pair of officers the city s police chief Mark Bruley advised reporters Hortman the former house speaker had long been one of the state s leading Democrats Minutes later Brooklyn Park Boelter his phony police car parked out front with its lights flashing was standing at the front door of the large brick home when the real Brooklyn Park officers arrived Moments after their arrival on scene Boelter fired several gunshots as he moved forward entering the Hortmans home the federal affidavit states Moments later he fired a second set of shots The officers moved to the house and discovered a gravely injured Mark Hortman in the doorway Inside the house they ascertained Melissa Hortman She had also been badly shot Both soon died Left behind though was Boelter s car with the list of targets and at least five weapons Nearby police exposed the mask Boelter had worn along with the pistol he d carried Law enforcement assumed he was on foot About a m Dad went to war last night stated a message Boelter sent on a family group text which his wife eventually shared with officers Police had identified her by tracking her cellphone They uncovered her in a car with her children along with two handguns about in cash and passports the affidavit declared Boelter had apparently urged her to leave Words are not going to explain how sorry I am he commented in another message there s gonna be specific people coming to the house armed and trigger-happy and I don t want you guys around He also reached out to two roommates with whom he sometimes stayed in Minneapolis May be dead shortly so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn t gone this way Boelter wrote according to Paul Schroeder who has known Boelter for years Friends announced Boelter had been struggling financially in fresh years In he began working for a passage institution for a funeral home mostly picking up bodies from assisted-living facilities That job ended about four months ago Later Saturday morning Brooklyn Park Within hours of the Hortman shooting hundreds of police officers sheriff deputies and FBI agents were roaming the streets near the scene Members of law enforcement agencies walk through a field near a wagon suspected to belong to shooting suspect Vance Boelter Sunday June in Belle Plaine Minn AP Photo George Walker IV Cellphones in the area pinged an alert urging people near the Hortmans neighborhood to take shelter Police are still looking for a suspect in multiple targeted shootings who is armed and dangerous the alert noted giving a description of Boelter Do not approach A series of roadblocks was also set up with law enforcement searching every conveyance as it left fearing Boelter could try to escape by hiding in a car About a m bus stop in north Minneapolis Carrying two duffel bags Boelter approached a man he didn t know at a Minneapolis bus stop roughly miles from the Hortmans home and urged to purchase his electric bike After taking the bus together to the man s home Boelter agreed to buy the bike and the man s Buick sedan They then drove the Buick to a bank branch in nearby Robbinsdale where Boelter who can be seen in assurance footage wearing a cowboy hat withdrew emptying his bank account He paid the man Sunday June about a m Green Isle Law enforcement received a account of someone riding an e-bike on a country road outside the small town of Green Isle about an hour from downtown Minneapolis The cyclist was not determined but Boelter s family lives not far away in a sprawling -square-foot house they bought in for more than Later Sunday morning The Buick was detected abandoned near where the cyclist had been spotted Worried about explosives law enforcement initially used a robot to check the car Inside they uncovered the cowboy hat that Boelter appeared to be wearing in the bank There was also a handwritten letter addressed to the FBI in which Boelter reported he was the shooter at large in Minnesota involved in the shootings Sunday night Green Isle Law enforcement set up a large perimeter near Green Isle after a police officer thought he d seen Boelter running into the woods Twenty tactical teams were called in for an intensive search An amed FBI agent in an armored bus takes part in the search for an working shooter sweeping a neighborhood adjacent to the home of Minnesota DFL State Representative Melissa Hortman in Brooklyn Park Minn Saturday June Alex Kormann Star Tribune via AP For hours heavily armed men certain with dogs walked the roads and fields of rural Sibley County A helicopter was called in to help Boelter was spotted shortly before nightfall and officers surrounded him He soon surrendered crawling to officers who handcuffed him and took him into custody Monday St Paul Boelter now faces a series of state charges including murder and attempted murder Federal prosecutors informed they had charged him with murder and stalking which could end in a death sentence if he is convicted At a federal court hearing Monday in St Paul Boelter declared he could not afford an attorney A federal defender was appointed to represent him He was ordered held without bail ahead of a court appearance next week This booking photo provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff s Office shows Vance Boelter in Green Isle Minn on June Hennepin County Sheriff s Office via AP Across the U S local and state politicians rushed to scrub home addresses from websites and began debating whether precaution should now be provided for politicians like state senators U S Sen Amy Klobuchar shared a text from Yvette Hoffman whose recovery came quicker than her husband s John is enduring multiple surgeries right now and is closer every hour to being out of the woods Yvette Hoffman mentioned Saturday in a text that Klobuchar posted on social media He took bullet hits I took and we are both incredibly lucky to be alive We are gutted and devastated by the loss of Melissa and Mark Associated Press reporters Alanna Durkin Richer Michael Biesecker Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington Jim Mustian in New York John Seewer in Toledo Ohio John Hanna in Topeka Kansas Rio Yamat in Las Vegas Giovanna Dell Orto in Champlin Obed Lamy in St Paul and Margery Beck in Omaha Nebraska contributed to this assessment This story was compiled from federal and state legal documents interviews with law enforcement authorities political bureaucrats and people who knew Boelter and the casualties