<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/usa" rel="" target="_blank" title="US"><span>US</span></a><span> grand jury has indicted a man on charges that he fatally shot a prominent Minnesota state representative and her husband and seriously wounded a state senator and his wife while he was allegedly disguised as a police officer.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The indictment handed up lists murder, stalking and firearms charges against Vance Boelter. The murder counts in the deaths of former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, could carry the federal death penalty.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This political assassination, the likes of which have never occurred here in the state of Minnesota, has shook our state at a foundational level," acting US Attorney Joseph Thompson said.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/bradley-john-murdoch-peter-falconio-killer-dead-after-cancer-battle/d00e74ef-e0aa-4b21-9862-b1b7a45fd6c8" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Backpacker killer Bradley John Murdoch dies aged 67</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said a decision on whether to seek the death penalty "will not come for several months" and will be up to US Attorney General Pam Bondi. Minnesota abolished its state death penalty in 1911, but President Donald Trump's administration says it intends to be aggressive in seeking capital punishment for eligible federal crimes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Prosecutors initially charged Boelter with the same counts. But under federal court rules they needed a grand jury indictment to take the case to trial.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Boelter's federal defender, Manny Atwal, did not immediately return messages seeking comment on the indictment and the new allegations.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/vance-boelter-indicted-us-grand-jury-shooting-melissa-hortman-minnesota-house-speaker/f79a27e0-6e6f-452e-adf0-62ad55a93c47" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Political extremism as a motive</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Thompson also disclosed new details at a news conference. He said investigators had found a handwritten letter by Boelter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel in which he confessed to the shootings and made bizarre claims.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"In the letter, Vance Boelter claims that he had been trained by the US military off the books and he had conducted missions on behalf of the US military in Asia, the Middle East and Africa," Thompson said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Boelter also said in the letter that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had approached him about killing the state's two US senators, fellow Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/jeffrey-epstein-memo-pam-bondi-says-no-change-to-position-on-files-after-donald-trump-suggests-releasing-more/9899d92b-b7a2-4cc1-9d46-f53fbbf92484" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Bondi says no change to position on Epstein after Trump suggests releasing more files</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Asked by a reporter if all that was a fantasy, Thompson replied: "Yes, I agree."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"There is little evidence showing why he turned to political violence and extremism," Thompson said. "What he left were lists: politicians in Minnesota, lists of politicians in other states, lists of names of attorneys at national law firms."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Friends have described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views who had been struggling to find work. At a hearing July 3, Boelter said he was "looking forward to the facts about the 14th coming out."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In an interview </span><a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/12/world-news/accused-killer-vance-boelter-hints-at-motive-in-post-jailhouse-interview/" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><span>published by the New York Post</span></a><span> on Saturday, Boelter insisted the shootings had nothing to do with his opposition to abortion or his support for Trump, but he declined to discuss why he allegedly killed the Hortmans and wounded the Hoffmans.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/china-australia-update-li-qiang-calls-for-deeper-cooperation-with-australia-amid-global-donald-trump-tariff-uncertainty/419001d0-48a7-4714-9ac3-55452163f114" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>China's message for Australia amid global Trump tariff uncertainty</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"You are fishing and I can't talk about my case…I'll say it didn't involve either the Trump stuff or pro life," Boelter wrote in a message to the newspaper via the jail's messaging system.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Boelter also faces state murder and attempted murder charges in Hennepin County, but the federal case will go first.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Other details of the case</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Prosecutors say Boelter, 57, who has lived in rural Sibley County south of Minneapolis, was driving a fake squad car, wearing a realistic rubber mask that covered his head and wearing tactical gear around 2am on June 14 when he went to the home of Senator John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in the Minneapolis suburb of Champlin. He allegedly shot the senator nine times, and Yvette Hoffman eight times, but they survived.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Prosecutors allege he then stopped at the homes of two other lawmakers. One, in Maple Grove, wasn't home while a police officer may have scared him off from the second, in New Hope. Boelter then allegedly went to the Hortman home in nearby Brooklyn Park and killed both of them. Their dog was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanised.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Brooklyn Park police, who had been alerted to the shootings of the Hoffmans, arrived at the Hortman home around 3.30am, moments before the gunman opened fire on the couple, the complaint said. Boelter allegedly fled and left behind his car, which contained notebooks listing dozens of Democratic officials as potential targets with their home addresses, as well as five guns and a large quantity of ammunition.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Law enforcement officers finally captured Boelter about 40 hours later, about 1.6km from his rural home in Green Isle, after what authorities called the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Remembering the victims</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Senator Hoffman is out of the hospital and is now at a rehabilitation facility, his family announced last week, adding he has a long road to recovery. Yvette Hoffman was released a few days after the attack. Former President Joe Biden visited the senator in the hospital when he was in town for the Hortmans' funeral.</span></div></div><div class="styles__Wrapper-sc-2o34ro-0 cmwkBV"><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><a href="/content/2025/07/15/10/31/today-in-history-july-16-what-happened-on-this-day"><img alt="" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 636px, (min-width: 768px) 396px, 100vw" src="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/qxHph5ZEOAYXJ0SZI3XpF_rIeqE=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F62579682-5d28-44b6-aa7c-484f6ffeb01e" srcset="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/qxHph5ZEOAYXJ0SZI3XpF_rIeqE=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F62579682-5d28-44b6-aa7c-484f6ffeb01e 396w, https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/oA5ULckv6QPTLkudtjPlY1JvNpg=/636x358/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F62579682-5d28-44b6-aa7c-484f6ffeb01e 636w"/></a></div><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><div class="styles__Headline-sc-2o34ro-4 hpbOlz">The river swim that signalled the start of a purge of millions</div><div class="styles__Button-sc-2o34ro-1 eBjlmW"><a class="styles__ButtonLink-sc-2o34ro-2 hqpklJ" href="/content/2025/07/15/10/31/today-in-history-july-16-what-happened-on-this-day">View Gallery</a></div></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris joined mourners at the Hortmans' funeral June 28. Walz, Harris's running mate on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket, eulogised Melissa Hortman as "the most consequential speaker in Minnesota history."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hortman led the House from 2019 until January and was a driving force as Democrats passed an ambitious list of liberal priorities in 2023.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She yielded the speakership to a Republican in a power-sharing deal after the November elections left the House tied, and she took the title speaker emerita.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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