More than a year after a man killed a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and shot another lawmaker and the legislator’s wife, he was expected to be sentenced to life in prison on Thursday.
The attacks, described by prosecutors as targeted political assassinations, set off an urgent manhunt across the state and left Minnesotans in terror. The attacker went to the homes of Democratic lawmakers in the middle of the night, disguised as a law enforcement officer.
The man, Vance Boelter, 58, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, stalking and firearm offenses in June after prosecutors announced that they did not intend to seek the death penalty. A plea agreement that prosecutors reached with Mr. Boelter stipulates that he receive two consecutive life sentences, though a judge still must approve the terms.
The attack killed Melissa Hortman, a veteran legislator who served as the Democrats’ speaker of the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, in the early hours of June 14, 2025. Earlier that morning, John Hoffman, a state senator, and his wife, Yvette, were gravely wounded but survived.
In an era when concerns about political violence have intensified, the Minnesota attack stood out, partly because Mr. Boelter has never offered a clear motive.
According to the plea agreement, which provided a detailed account of the attacks, Mr. Boelter spent months gathering information about Minnesota elected officials. The night of the shootings, he drove to the Hoffmans’ suburban home in an S.U.V. outfitted with emergency lights.
Wearing a fake police uniform and a silicon mask, he gained entry by claiming to be a law enforcement officer and shot the Hoffmans in the presence of their daughter. The daughter called the authorities, setting off a large police search that lasted nearly two days.
Mr. Boelter then drove to the homes of two other Democratic legislators, though he did not encounter them. Next, he went to the Hortmans’ home, where he told them he was a police officer doing a “welfare check” in response to reports of a shooting.
Mark Hortman, who had been sleeping, asked for the attacker’s name and badge number. After a brief exchange, Mr. Boelter shot Mr. Hortman, and ran upstairs, where he shot Ms. Hortman.
Mr. Boelter, a Minnesota preacher who had a peripatetic career, has made implausible claims about the attack. In a letter to the F.B.I. director before turning himself in, he claimed that the attack had been instigated by Minnesota Democratic leaders. Later, he told journalists that the shootings were related to an investigation he claimed he had carried out related to vaccines.
In a court filing this week, Mr. Boelter’s lawyers said that he wished to serve his prison term at a federal facility in Florida.
“Mr. Boelter knows expressing his remorse does not take away the pain he has caused,” they wrote. “But pleading guilty and agreeing to maximum penalties does show Mr. Boelter’s sincere remorse.”
In another filing, prosecutors said that the gunman was motivated by politics, suggesting that he intended to empower conservatives in the state’s narrowly splitLegislature.
“He knew that the Minnesota Legislature was so closely divided that by killing four state legislators, the inevitable result would be a shift in the balance of power in both legislative houses,” prosecutors wrote.
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