The man accused of assassinating a Minnesota state Democratic lawmaker and her husband had recently taken a job picking up bodies for a funeral services company.
Police arrested Vance Boelter, 57, late Sunday on suspicion of dressing up like a police officer and fatally shooting state Rep. Melissa Hortman, 55, and her husband Mark, 58, early Saturday at their home in Brooklyn Park.
He also allegedly shot state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife at their home in nearby Champlin before leading police on a nearly two-day manhunt.
Even as more information has been revealed about Boelter, a conservative Christian and supporter of President Donald Trump, his personal and professional situations remain unclear.
Boelter had recently been experiencing financial and mental health challenges, his roommate and childhood friend David Carlson told The New York Times. Despite being married with five children, Boelter was apparently renting a room in Carlson’s home for about $220 per month.
His LinkedIn profile says he was looking for work after spending more than 20 years in food production operations and convenience store management. His last stable job appears to have been working as a general manager for 7-Eleven, a position he left in late 2021.
Since then, he claimed to have been working on “several projects” in the Democratic Republic of Congo and apparently started a home security company called Praetorian Guard Security Services with his wife Jenny.
He also took online classes in mortuary science at the Des Moines Area Community College, according to the Times.
In an online video, he said he worked six days a week for two funeral service companies in the Minneapolis area. At one company, he sometimes helped remove bodies from crime scenes and worked with police officers and death investigators, he said. Other times, he helped remove bodies from houses and nursing homes.
A website for Praetorian Guard Security listed him as director of security patrols and his wife as the president, according to the Times.
It’s not clear if the company actually had any clients, but it did advertise having a fleet of “police type vehicles” and other equipment that could have helped him impersonate a police officer, CNN reported.
The company website said Boelter had been “involved with security situations” in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, though the Times was not able to verify the claims.
They appear to be related to another organization Boelter started with his wife, a Christian nonprofit called Revoformation Ministries.
According to an archived version of its website, Boelter described himself as an “ordained minister” and said he had traveled to violent areas to seek out militant Islamists and try to spread the gospel, according to the Times.
During a sermon he gave in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he said he had been confronted by armed militants while distributing pamphlets in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
Carlson told CNN, however, that Boelter’s religious and political beliefs didn’t define him.
“He wasn’t a hateful person,” Carlson said. “But he needed help.”
Boelter allegedly left behind a notebook with a hit list containing about 70 potential targets, including other Democratic lawmakers, doctors, community and business leaders, and Planned Parenthood and other healthcare providers.
Police had originally responded to Hoffman’s home and found that he and his wife Yvette had both been shot. They were rushed into emergency surgery, and police decided to do a wellness check on Hortman, according to the Times.
There, they encountered the attacker, who exchanged gunfire with police before fleeing on foot. He left behind a Ford Explorer parked in Hortman’s driveway—the same vehicle advertised on the Praetorian Guard website.
Inside, officers found Melissa and Mark Hortman shot dead. The couple shared two adult children who apparently weren’t home at the time. Melissa’s beloved rescue dog was also shot in the attack and had to be put down.
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