MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man from Minnesota, who impersonated a police officer to gain access to Democratic lawmakers’ homes, has admitted guilt in a deadly rampage that resulted in the deaths of the state House speaker and her husband, and injuries to a state senator and his wife. By pleading guilty to murder on Thursday, Vance Boelter has avoided facing the federal death penalty.
The violent spree last summer by 58-year-old Boelter, which occurred in the Minneapolis area, prompted the most extensive police manhunt in Minnesota’s history. The shocking events sent ripples of fear across the nation, highlighting the potential for rising political tensions to spiral into violence.
In court, the emotional atmosphere was palpable as family members of the victims, Melissa and Mark Hortman, sat quietly sobbing. They were joined by Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who also suffered injuries during the attacks on June 14, 2025. The gruesome details of that night were recounted during the proceedings.
Boelter, dressed in a tactical outfit complete with a lifelike mask, used a police-style SUV equipped with flashing lights to approach the homes of these lawmakers. He repeatedly affirmed his actions with a simple “yes” when his lawyer questioned him about his violent conduct, including the moment he shot Melissa Hortman at point-blank range.
On that same night, Boelter also targeted the residences of two other legislators in the Minneapolis suburbs. At one home, he knocked but received no response. At the other, his plans were thwarted when a real police officer, mistaking him for a fellow officer, approached his vehicle, causing him to flee the scene.
U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen told reporters after the hearing that the death penalty was only taken off the table after Boelter agreed to the longest possible prison sentence for the six federal charges: two consecutive life terms, plus 40 years.
“Political violence is a scourge plaguing America,” Rosen said. “Those that would commit political violence at any level should take heed: the Justice Department will seek and obtain the longest prison terms available for your crimes.”
Boelter also faces state charges, including two counts of murder and four counts of attempted murder as well as charges of impersonating a police officer and animal cruelty. The Hortman family’s golden retriever was gravely injured in the shootings and had to be euthanized. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Thursday that the federal plea agreement does not affect the state’s case, which had been on hold pending the resolution of the federal case.
Boelter, wearing his orange jail sweatshirt and sweatpants as he sat in the courtroom between two of his attorneys, listened closely as U.S. District Judge John Tunheim talked through each of the six charges and their maximum sentences. Tunheim accepted the guilty pleas and said he would set a date soon for sentencing.
Boelter was captured near his home in rural Green Isle, about an hour’s drive from Minneapolis, the day after the shootings, which prosecutors have said were politically motivated but which remain in many ways unexplained.
“Dad went to war last night,” Boelter messaged his family that morning. “Words are not going to explain how sorry I am.”
After Boelter’s arrest, authorities released a rambling handwritten letter they say he wrote FBI Director Kash Patel, confessing to the attacks but not explaining why he targeted the Hortmans or the Hoffmans. In messages to reporters, Boelter referred repeatedly to a yearslong “investigation” he said he’d been carrying out, sometimes suggesting it was about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Boelter, an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views who had traveled to Congo as a preacher and missionary, spent much of his life in the food service industry. He had been struggling to earn a living before the shootings, after the failure of a security company he’d founded.
John Hoffman said in a lawsuit filed against Boelter in April that his left arm and hand likely would never fully recover and that he also had permanent injuries to his digestive and urinary systems.
Yvette Hoffman was left with permanent physical weakness, the lawsuit said, while their adult daughter, Hope Hoffman, who was there and called 911 but was not shot, suffered severe psychological trauma.
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Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa.