A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A man suspected of killing a Democratic Minnesota legislative leader over the weekend is in custody.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Last night, police arrested Vance Boelter in a rural area outside Minneapolis. The 57-year-old is charged with murder. Governor Tim Walz has called it a politically motivated attack.
MARTÍNEZ: Minnesota Public Radio's Matt Sepic joins us now from Minneapolis. Matt, let's start with the victims of this attack. Who were they?
MATT SEPIC, BYLINE: Investigators say that Vance Boelter posed as a police officer and fatally shot former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, around 3:30 a.m. Saturday inside their home in Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. Boelter's also suspected of shooting and seriously wounding Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their house about 90 minutes earlier. When Hoffman's daughter called 911 to report the shooting, police went to the Hortmans' home. According to the criminal complaint, officers saw Boelter, who was dressed as a policeman, shoot Mark Hortman through an open door. Police then exchanged gunfire with Boelter, who ran through the house and out the back.
Boelter left a vehicle in the Hortmans' driveway that was similar in appearance to a police SUV. Inside it, investigators allegedly found a list of names and addresses of other public officials. At a news conference late last night, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that the initial 911 call and the officers' decision to check on Hortman stopped the gunman from killing other public officials. The Democratic governor pleaded for civility in public life.
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TIM WALZ: This cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences. Now's the time for us to recommit to the core values of this country.
MARTÍNEZ: Matt, where was Boelter caught?
SEPIC: Yesterday morning, residents of rural Sibley County - that's about 50 miles southwest of Minneapolis - got cellphone alerts telling them to lock their homes and vehicles. That was after police found a car belonging to Boelter down the road from his home in that area. Brooklyn Park police Chief Mark Bruley says an officer thought that he may have seen Boelter run into the woods, so authorities hurried to set up a perimeter.
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MARK BRULEY: During that, we got privy to additional information of individual that was in the woods, and that search went on for many hours until, ultimately, we were able to locate him in the woods.
SEPIC: Bruley says officers called Boelter out of the forest and into a field, where he surrendered. The chief called the operation the largest manhunt in Minnesota history and said 20 SWAT teams were involved with it. Authorities say Boelter was armed, but they did not specify what type of weapon he had.
MARTÍNEZ: Does anyone know any motive for what happened?
SEPIC: Authorities didn't offer any new information about Boelter's alleged motive, but several Democratic elected officials, including U.S. Senator Tina Smith and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, confirmed that they were among those on the list of people allegedly targeted by Boelter. Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans added last night that the list included names of people from other states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska and Iowa.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, one more thing. The couple who survived the attack, how are they doing?
SEPIC: Yvette Hoffman was struck by eight bullets, and her husband, state Senator John Hoffman, was hit nine times. Governor Walz said last night that John Hoffman came out of his final surgery and is moving toward recovery. Yvette Hoffman exchanged text messages with U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar yesterday, writing, quote, "we are both incredibly lucky to be alive."
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's reporter Matt Sepic of Minnesota Public Radio. Matt, thank you.
SEPIC: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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