Suspect In Shootings Of Minnesota Lawmakers Is Apprehended

(MENAFN- Live Mint) (Bloomberg) -- The man suspected of killing a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota has been arrested and will appear in court Monday.

Vance Boelter, 57, was apprehended Sunday evening after a weekend manhunt that had the region on edge. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture.

Boelter was booked into the Hennepin County Jail and is being held on murder charges with bail of $5 million. He is scheduled to appear in court in Minneapolis at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time on Monday.

Melissa Hortman, the Democratic leader in the state House, and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot Saturday at their house in Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. John Hoffman, a Democratic Minnesota state senator, and his wife, Yvette, were wounded in a separate shooting at their home that was also linked to the suspect. The shooter was impersonating a police officer, according to the FBI.

The shootings sparked fear in Minnesota on a day when protesters filled the streets in cities across the US to oppose Republican President Donald Trump's administration as he held a military parade in Washington. The attacks renewed a focus on political violence that both political parties have deplored for years. Threats against national lawmakers in Washington increased to 9,000 last year from 1,700 in 2016, said US Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat.

In a message published by Klobuchar, Yvette Hoffman said she had been shot eight times and her husband, John, nine times.

“We are both incredibly lucky to be alive,” Yvette Hoffman wrote.“There is never a place for this kind of political hate.”

Authorities found Boelter crawling through the woods near his home in Sibley County, the Associated Press reported. They had earlier found a vehicle he was using abandoned in the rural area, the AP said.

Speculation has focused on a purported hit list left at the crime scene that included several Minnesota politicians and abortion providers in the state, according to a government document seen by Bloomberg News.

“This is not a document that would be like a traditional manifesto that's a treatise on all kinds of ideology and writings,” said Drew Evans, superintendent of the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Instead, he called it“a notebook with a lot of lawmakers and others that are listed,” along with“other thoughts.”

Evans cautioned against speculating about the suspect's motives and declined to elaborate on the list in the notebook.

--With assistance from Miranda Davis.

(Updates with details of arrest and scheduled court appearance.)

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