State & Federal Charges In Minnesota

Around 11 p.m. ET Sunday night, Vance Boelter was taken into custody in connection with the shooting deaths and attempted murders of two Minnesota state representatives and their spouses.

All afternoon, the right-wing news echo chamber had been full of claims the shooter was a Democrat, which turned out to be false. Conservative personality and Trump supporter Laura Loomer tweeted that the shooter had been appointed to a state commission by Minnesota’s Governor, the former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee. “Tim Walz's goons are now assassinating law makers who support legislation Walz opposes.” Reducing this to politics misses the key point: political violence is never acceptable, no matter who perpetrates it or who the victim is. But that sentiment does not seem to hold on the Republican side of the aisle.

Take Utah Senator Mike Lee, who also seemed to think the shooter was a Democrat, or as Lee put it, a “Marxist.” (Walz once appointed Boelter to a low-level board in the state that was required to include both Republicans and Democrats.)

So, it turns out that the MAGA news bubble got it wrong and that Boelter is a Trump supporter and a Trump voter, possibly with strong anti-abortion views. On Sunday, a longtime friend told CNN Boelter was a conservative who was strongly against abortion rights.

But that really isn’t the point. The point is that political violence is never acceptable. Even if—perhaps especially if—it is perpetrated by people whose views are aligned with your own, you should call it out. It is never acceptable. Period.

Police officers found a hit list with nearly 70 names on it in Boelter’s car. Most of the people he included are Democrats or people who support abortion rights. That includes Minnesota lawmakers Representative Ilhan Omar and Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar. Violence is never the answer, whether it is an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate or the murder of sitting members of a state legislature. If we tolerate this, then we are accelerating our slide down the slippery slope towards banana republic status, a country where politicians and judges are always at risk and good people begin to walk away from government.

It’s a good reminder to all of us to focus on what really matters—protecting democracy, not hyper-partisanship. Politicians and others who get facts wrong have an obligation to go back and clear it up, but I’ve not seen that yet. Senator Tina Smith reportedly pulled Lee out of a meeting to express her feelings about his social media posts. Her chief of staff, Ed Shelleby, sent a deeply moving letter to Senator Lee’s office. Shelleby wrote candidly from a place of “enormous grief,” decrying the jokey memes Lee had posted on social media over the weekend as painful, and asking, “Have you absolutely no conscience? No decency?”

Charges have now been filed against Boelter in both the state and federal systems. In both cases, the charges were made via a complaint signed by prosecutors. They will be superseded by grand jury charges.

The state complaint charges Boelter with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in the second degree. Second-degree murder in the state (each state’s laws are different, although there is some carryover) means an intentional killing that wasn’t premeditated. But the district attorney in Hennepin County said in a press conference this morning that she will seek first-degree murder charges from the grand jury after reviewing the evidence. First-degree premeditated murder charges require an indictment by a grand jury, which is why the complaint charges second-degree murder.

The statement of probable cause, a type of affidavit that accompanies the state complaint, is bare bones, reflecting two separate crime scenes:

Residence 1: At approximately 2:05 a.m., Champlin Police officers responded to a shooting after a 911 caller reported that a masked person had come to their door and then shot their parents. This was the Hoffman’s home, where both victims survived the shooting. (Although not reflected in this document, there was subsequent reporting that Yvette Hoffman saved her 20-year-old daughter’s life by covering her with her own body. It was the daughter who called 911.) There is video surveillance footage showing the police-style vehicle Boelter drove and the police uniform he was wearing. He knocked and announced himself as a police officer before entering the home and shooting the Hoffmans. He fled the home in the police-style vehicle.

Residence 2: A Brooklyn Park Police Department officer learned about the shooting a short time later, and because one of the victims was a state legislator, police sent patrol officers to the Hoffmans’ home. Tragically, they arrived in time to see Boelter, still dressed as a police officer, shoot Mr. Hortman through the open door of the home. Police exchanged gunfire with him, and he fled into the residence before escaping. Both of the Hortmans died from their wounds. A search of Boelter’s vehicle yielded what police characterized as “at least” three AK-47 assault rifles, a 9mm handgun, and his hit list, including names and addresses. A ballistic vest, a disassembled 9mm firearm, a mask, and a gold police-style badge were found nearby. The footage permitted positive identification of Boelter.

There is also a federal complaint, based on a 20-page affidavit. That affidavit and a statement issued by federal prosecutors provide more information than the state’s papers do. The affidavit contains more details about Boelter’s conduct at the victims’ homes and also reflects that he made two other efforts to reach state officials’ homes, failing in one case because the individual was on vacation and on the other because he couldn’t get access to the home.

The federal charges include stalking, which can be punished with the death penalty if a death results from the commission of the crime, as well as two firearms related crimes: using a firearm to commit a murder involving stalking and discharging a firearm in relation to a stalking crime.

It’s not clear why there are federal charges at this stage in what is primarily a state crime. Often, the feds will obtain an indictment as a backup in case anything goes astray in the state case. Here, they obtained an Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution (UFAP) warrant, a device often used by federal agents to assist state partners in arresting a fugitive from state charges who has fled out of state. Because warrants are frequently only effective in-state, the UFAP warrants are used. They are frequently worked out of fugitive task forces led by United States Marshals working with state and local counterparts and are usually dismissed in favor of the state charges once the fugitive is caught. Minnesota was able to obtain an all-states warrant, which would have let officials who laid hands on Boelter anywhere in the country arrest him, so it’s unclear why the federal warrant was in place too. It’s possible, because the timeline isn’t well established, that it came first.

State prosecutors handle murder cases far more frequently than their federal counterparts and are often more experienced in prosecuting murder cases. But Federal cases tend to move more quickly. It’s unclear what the agreement between the two jurisdictions is as to who will go first. Typically, you would expect to see the Justice Department defer to state prosecutors in a case like this one, where the victims are state officials and they have that interest to vindicate.

Tonight, what matters the most is that a dangerous fugitive is in custody. But we will all grieve the political violence and the loss of two lives, people who just sought to serve their country, for a long time to come.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, understanding how the legal process unfolds matters more than ever. Civil Discourse will offer clear, informed analysis of the charges, the prosecution, and what it reveals about our system of justice. If you value this kind of reporting, your support helps make it possible. I appreciate your paid subscriptions, which make it possible for me to devote time and resources to the newsletter; more than anything, I value your commitment to being educated about how our democracy works, which is why the newsletter will always remain free.

We’re in this together,

Joyce