Police scour rural Minnesota community where suspect’s vehicle was found

A woman pays her respects at a makeshift memorial for Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., on Sunday, June 15, 2025. (Tim Gruber/The New York Times)

By Mike Baker, Mitch Smith and Yan Zhuang

Tactical teams mobilized to a rural stretch of Minnesota on Sunday after officers found what they believed was a vehicle belonging to the man suspected of assassinating a Democratic state lawmaker and trying to kill a second.

Investigators expanding their search for the man, Vance Boelter, 57, across the state discovered the vehicle in Sibley County, about an hour’s drive southwest of Saturday’s shootings. As law enforcement officers donned tactical gear and rushed along a rural highway, cellphone emergency alerts blared, asking residents to keep their doors locked and vehicles secured.

Officials have pleaded for help from the public, offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to Boelter’s arrest. At the same time, they urged caution, saying he was believed to be armed, dangerous and willing to kill. State investigators scheduled a news conference to provide updates on the case at 5:30 p.m. Central time.

Communities were on edge around the Minneapolis suburbs where authorities say the suspect went to the homes of two lawmakers early Saturday, pretending to be a police officer. According to investigators, he was wearing a ballistic vest, gloves and an identity-disguising mask as he killed Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. The police almost caught the suspect at the home, but he escaped on foot after exchanging gunfire with officers.

A SWAT team responds to the site of a shorting in Brooklyn Park, Minn., outside Minneapolis, on Saturday, June 14, 2025. Authorities on Saturday morning were searching for a gunman involved in what they said were multiple targeted shootings in Champlin and Brooklyn Park, Minn. A Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department alert described the gunman as wearing black body armor over a blue shirt who may be trying to impersonate a police officer. (Tim Gruber/The New York Times)

State Sen. John Hoffman, a fellow Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were also shot in a separate attack but survived. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the couple were “hanging in there.” Hoffman, she said, “may face some additional surgeries, but he is also in stable condition right now, from what I know.”

Investigators have been examining surveillance footage, bank records, Boelter’s associations and his movements from before the shootings. He had been politically engaged: A friend said he opposed abortion and had supported President Donald Trump, and he previously served on a state workforce development board with Hoffman.

Here’s what else we know:

— The victims: Hortman served as speaker of the Minnesota House for a six-year period that ended this year and helped pass several key policies on abortion rights, marijuana legalization and medical leave. Hoffman is a fourth-term state senator from Champlin, another Minneapolis suburb, and leads the Senate’s Human Services Committee.

— The suspect: Boelter and his wife run a private security company that promotes the usage of SUVs similar to those used by police departments, according to its website. The couple also appears to have run a religious nonprofit. An archived version of the organization’s website described Boelter as an ordained minister who had preached overseas. It said that he “sought out militant Islamists in order to share the Gospel and tell them that violence wasn’t the answer.”

— Political violence: Slowly but surely, violence has moved from the fringes to become part of the political landscape. Threats and even assassinations, attempted or successful, have become a steady undercurrent of American life.