Suspect in shooting of Minnesota lawmakers to appear in court on murder charges

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (Reuters) -A man accused of killing a Democratic state lawmaker while posing as a police officer is expected to appear in a Minnesota court on Monday afternoon on state murder charges.

Vance Boelter, 57, is being held in Hennepin County after he was arrested on Sunday following a massive manhunt over the weekend. Boelter is accused of shooting dead Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, in their home on Saturday.

Authorities said Boelter was also suspected of shooting and wounding another Democratic lawmaker, state Senator John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette at their home a few miles away.

Governor Tim Walz has characterized the crimes as a "politically motivated assassination".

"A moment in this country where we watch violence erupt, this cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences," Walz said.

Boelter was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder, a criminal complaint showed. He is scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. local time, jail records showed.

Three of those charges are punishable with jail terms of up to 40 years, according to a Hennepin County criminal complaint unsealed on Sunday.

Boelter had been impersonating a police officer while carrying out the shootings, wearing an officer's uniform and driving a Ford SUV with police-style lights, the complaint said.

Boelter fled on foot early on Saturday when officers confronted him at Hortman's Brooklyn Park home, said authorities who had warned residents to stay indoors for their own safety and unleashed the state's biggest manhunt.

When police searched Boelter's SUV after the shootings, they discovered three AK-47 assault rifles, a 9-mm handgun, and a list of other public officials including their addresses, the criminal complaint showed.

Working on a tip that Boelter was near his home in the city of Green Isle, more than 20 SWAT teams combed the area, aided by surveillance aircraft, officials said. Boelter was armed but surrendered with no shots fired.

The operation to capture Boelter, drawing on the work of hundreds of detectives and a wide range of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, was the largest manhunt in state history, Brooklyn Park police Chief Mark Bruley said during a news conference on Sunday.

The killing was the latest episode of high-profile U.S. political violence.

Such incidents range from a 2022 attack on former Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband at their home, to an assassination bid on Donald Trump last year, and an arson attack at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's house in April.



(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in ChicagoEditing by Gareth Jones)