The suspect wanted the murder of a legislator from Minnesota and her husband, as well as in the shooting of a state senator and his wife, was found on Sunday night armed and crawling into a field in a scarcely populated section of Minnesota, the authorities said.
The governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, announced the capture of Vance Boelter at a press conference after saying on Saturday that the alleged crimes of the suspect included a “murder of political motivation.” Despite being armed, authorities said, Boelter was arrested without incident and no injuries were informed.
The application of the law that numbers almost 200, including members of 20 regional and local SWAT teams, descended in the east of the Sibley County, approximately one hour outside Minneapolis, starting on Sunday morning. But the suspect may have taken advantage of the fiercely rural land to remain hidden most of the day, authorities said.
The governor expressed his relief that the suspect was arrested after the collaborations of the Federal, State and local Police that concluded when the officers of the Patrol of the State of Minnesota gave him his wives.
Insomnia nights during hunting
“After a two -day human hunt, two nights of insomnia, the police have stopped” the alleged shooter, Walz said.
“This cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way we treat our political differences,” he added.
The authorities claim that Boelter tried to kill state senator John Hoffman, Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, at his home in Champlin at 2 in Saturday morning before fatally shooting the state representative Melissa Hortman, a 55 -year -old Democrat and her husband, Mark, in the nearby Brooklyn Park.
In a statement issued by the Hoffman family after Boelter’s arrest, Yvette Hoffman thanked the police for the suspect’s capture.
“John and I are incredibly fortunate to be alive,” reads the statement. “We continue our healing trip and we feel humiliated with the effusion of love and the support that our family has received from the entire State and our nation.”
The authorities said Boelter left a notebook with a success list of other politicians, as well as those who have expressed in support of abortion rights. The names included those of Hoffman and Hortman near the top, said the Executive of the Democratic Party Ron Harris, a fellow Minnesotan.
On Sunday night, Drew Evans, Superintendent of the State Office of Criminal apprehension, said the list also included Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska and Iowa politicians.
Boelter emerged as the suspect when the police covered familiar places for him and spoke with people associated with the 57 -year -old married man.
The hunt was shaken in a renewed action around 6:30 on Sunday morning when his car and his cowboy hat were found not far from his residence in Green isle in the eastern part of Sibley County, authorities said.
A Buick Regal associated with the suspect and his cowboy hat, which is next to a highway in a wooded area about three miles from the residence, attracted a massive mass, authorities said.
A tense ten hours in hunting
But the path seemed to cool dusk, since there were no signs of the suspect for more than ten hours despite the evidence that he had talked to people while he was in the race, Evans, the superintendent of criminal detention, said at an earlier press conference in the day.
Boelter remained a mystery even when the authorities spoke with his wife and relatives after a Sunday traffic stop, during which they fully cooperated with the researchers, Evans said.
There was no evidence, he said, the suspect once threatened the legislators who shot or any other person on that list.
The arrest orders included a state order claiming that he committed second degree murder and a federal order that alleges that he was fleeing to avoid prosecution. It was not clear if the suspect has obtained a legal advisor.
The authorities say that Boelter passed the police to approach legislators in their suburban homes of twin cities before opening fire.
The police in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, carried out a welfare control at the Hortmans residence found a man on the front who believe that Boelter is and dresses as a police officer, with a police style SUV, emergency lights on, on the entrance path, Brooklyn Park police officer Park, Mark Bruley, said on Saturday.
It was evident that the house had caught fire before the arrival of the officers, he said, and when the suspect realized that the police had arrived, opened fire and exchanged rounds with them before fleeing from the house and escaping, he said.
No other injuries were reported, but within that house it was the murdered couple, authorities said.
A declaration of probable cause filed in support of the positions reflected in the state order declared that the suspect was seen in a security video before in Hoffman’s house, shortly after 2 in the morning, presenting himself at his door as a police officer, with a mask on his face and using a SUV Ford that had the appearance of a marked patrol vehicle.
The couple’s daughter was not beaten and called 911. Walz cited the daughter, Hope, while talking on Sunday night, calling her “heroic” actions.
The authorities said they found three semi -automatic rifles and two 9 mm guns in the abandoned SUV. Also inside, they said, it was the notebook with the alleged success list.
At the press conference, Evans said that a local police officer informed having seen a man running towards the forest, and the authorities, including Swat teams and a state public security helicopter, ran the area. They called the suspect to surrender and captured him as a field dragged into a field, he said.
The detectives were interviewing the suspect during the night, Evans said.
In video that circulates online, the suspect describes himself as a five -year -old married father of Green isle who works for two funerals. He said he previously worked for three decades in the food industry and once traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to associate with farmers and fishermen there to help them stimulate their food supply system.
A “deep impact” in Minnesota
The Senator of Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, said that Yvette Hoffman was well enough to send text messages, including that her husband had to undergo multiple operations from the shooting in which she said she was beaten by nine rounds and another eight beat her.
She said the state senator is “closer every hour to be out of the forest,” according to Klobuchar. Later, Walz said Hoffman left the last of many immediate operations he needed and was recovering.
Walz said the shootings will have a deep impact on the Minnesota policy, with the loss of Hortman presenting a jam of double -edged political violence and the loss of a leader who described as ardently effective and compromising.
“Melissa Hortman was the core of who our values were,” said the governor. “It’s not about hate. It’s not bad tweets. It’s not about degrading someone. He directs with grace, compassion, vision, commitment and decency. That was removed.”
