Accused Minnesota assassin: ‘If you want to save the country you have to get your hands dirty’

Accused Minnesota assassin Vance Luther Boelter seemingly thought he was saving the country — and was willing to get his “hands dirty” in the process.

A handwritten statement contained in one of the notebooks seized by the FBI gives a clue to his possible motivation in allegedly killing a top Democratic state lawmaker and her husband on June 14 and attempting to kill a state senator, his wife, and adult daughter.

‘I could have left a pile of cops dead.’

As a federal grand jury delivered a six-count indictment against Boelter that could bring the death penalty for murder, prosecutors in Minneapolis released extensive new details from their investigation of what they said was Boelter’s plan to murder at least seven people in the predawn hours of June 14.

Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, Minn., was indicted by the grand jury for the murder of state House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and her husband, Mark Hortman; the shooting and grievous wounding of state Sen. John Hoffman (DFL-Champlin) and his wife, Yvette Hoffman; and the attempted shooting and intended murder of the Hoffmans’ adult daughter, Hope. He was also charged with stalking the lawmakers and using firearms in furtherance of his crimes.

“Vance Boelter planned and carried out a night of terror that shook Minnesota to its core,” acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said in a statement. “He carried out targeted political assassinations the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota.

“We grieve with the Hortman family and continue to pray for the recovery of the Hoffmans,” Thompson said. “Today, a grand jury indicted Boelter with the most serious of federal charges for these heinous political assassinations. Let me be clear: Boelter will see justice.”

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An image from the home security system of Melissa and Mark Hortman shows Vance Luther Boelter wearing a mask with goatee and a wig as he rang the doorbell at 3:30 a.m. June 14, 2025, the FBI said.FBI image

Prosecutors added detail to what they said was Boelter’s twisted plan to execute at least four Democratic state lawmakers in the overnight hours on June 14. He allegedly ended up killing the two Hortman spouses and their family golden retriever, putting 17 bullets into Hoffman and his wife, and firing at Hope Hoffman, who miraculously was not hit by the gunfire because her parents shielded her and pushed her out of harm's way, the FBI said.

After allegedly shooting Mark Hortman at the front entrance of the Hortman home, Boelter allegedly executed Melissa Hortman as she attempted to run up the stairs, the FBI said. He then apparently fired on the family’s golden retriever, Gilbert, whom FBI agents later found mortally wounded in the back yard.

Thompson told a Tuesday news conference that the grand jury indictments came with a “notice of special findings,” which is the first step “for seeking the death penalty against defendant Vance Boelter.”

Thompson said the decision on whether to seek the death penalty “will not come for several months and will ultimately be decided by Attorney General [Pamela] Bondi with input from the Capital Case Unit in the Department of Justice, along with this office and the victims.”

The alleged attempted shooting and intended murder of Hope Hoffman was new to the case since a criminal complaint was first issued against Boelter on June 16. Statements from Hope Hoffman and her parents — who are recovering from their life-threatening wounds — led to the charges for harming and attempting to kill the Hoffman family.

“We now know that Vance Boelter not only shot at Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, but he also shot at and attempted to kill their daughter, Hope Hoffman,” Thompson said. “Both John and Yvette acted with incredible bravery to put themselves between Boelter’s bullets and their daughter. Miraculously, Hope Hoffman was not shot, but she was the fifth intended victim of Vance Boelter that night, and as such she is included in the federal indictment.”

Hope Hoffman released a statement later Tuesday relating how she relives the nightmare of June 14.

“Though I was not shot physically, I will now forever coexist with the PTSD of watching my parents be nearly shot dead in front of me and seeing my life flash before my eyes with a gun in my face,” Hope Hoffman said.

“My parents pushed me out of the way that night. I was pretty bruised up from getting hurled against our washer, and I’m glad I was,” she said. “How I didn’t get grazed is nothing short of dumb luck. I’m grateful I happened to be at my parents’ house to be able to call 911. Had I not been, they wouldn’t be here. My parents saved me, and we saved each other.”

‘Good God, I was asleep!’

A search warrant affidavit released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office includes chilling new details of the execution of the Hortmans around 3:30 a.m. June 14.

According to the FBI, Boelter parked his fake police vehicle in the driveway of the Hortman home. Allegedly wearing a hyper-realistic silicone mask and a wig, Boelter rang the doorbell and shouted, “Police! Welfare check!” Boelter shined his tactical flashlight in Mark Hortman’s face when he answered the door, the affidavit said.

“When Mr. Hortman answered the door, Boelter — shining a flashing [sic] toward Mr. Hortman’s eyes — said there had been reports of shots fired,” the FBI affidavit said. “Mr. Hortman denied knowing anything about a shooting, saying at one point, ‘Good God, I was asleep!’

“Mr. Hortman told Boelter, who was still shining a flashlight toward him and was standing approximately six feet away from the doorway: ‘We can’t see you,’” the FBI said. “Mr. Hortman asked for Boelter’s name and badge number. Boelter did not promptly respond, but moments later he said, ‘Nelson, 286.’”

About this time, squad cars from the Brooklyn Park Police Department pulled up in front of the home to carry out a welfare check on the former speaker. Boelter allegedly began firing into the front door at Mark Hortman, then charged inside the home, the FBI said.

“One or more of the Brooklyn Park officers fired at Boelter as he charged forward into the home,” the FBI said. “As law enforcement later discovered, Boelter, having moved past the fallen Mr. Hortman and into the home, shot Representative Hortman several times at close range, killing her as she attempted to flee up the stairs.”

Shortly after, the FBI said, “sounds of extreme distress can be heard in the Hortman security footage coming from the Hortmans' golden retriever, Gilbert. Law enforcement determined that later Gilbert, too, had been shot. … Gilbert was seriously injured. FBI agents took Gilbert to a veterinarian, who attempted to save him, but Gilbert died from his injuries.”

‘She was the fifth intended victim of Vance Boelter that night.’

Prosecutors released the full text of the confession letter Boelter allegedly left inside the Buick sedan he reportedly used as a getaway vehicle some four hours after the shootings and abandoned on a rural road in Belle Plaine, Minn., June 15.

The rambling, disjointed, two-page screed written on the back of a wall calendar attempts to implicate Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz in a plot to murder U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), allegedly so Walz could take one of the open Senate seats.

Boelter allegedly wrote the letter hours before he was captured in Sibley County, 50 miles southwest of the Twin Cities, at 9:15 p.m. the night of June 15. He was at large for 43 hours and led police on the largest manhunt in Minnesota history.

Boelter allegedly wrote that Walz “is probably cra**ing bricks right now because I’m still at large and he knows what I can do and that I know about where all the buried skeletons are. So I will be shot on sight, you can bet on that.”

Boelter allegedly wrote that he would only surrender directly to FBI Director Kash Patel and said, “I need to be held in a military prison in Asia or the Middle East, or at least on a military ship over there.”

Handwritten notes

Prosecutors also released snippets of handwritten notes taken from journals found in the fake police vehicle Boelter allegedly used to travel to and between the homes of four Democratic Minnesota lawmakers, prosecutors contend, with the intention of killing them all.

They said Boelter made repeated political references in the notebook pages, along with a list of more than 45 Democratic lawmakers from six states and the names of prominent attorneys and the locations of Minnesota Planned Parenthood facilities.

The notebooks contain “all manner of notations, scribbles, stray phone numbers or emails, and lists, but few cohesively written thoughts,” the FBI wrote in a probable-cause affidavit. “There is no manifesto explaining his actions. There are, however, certain subjects or themes that appear several times in Boelter’s notes. One recurring subject matter is politicians.”

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A confession letter the FBI said was written by Vance Boelter makes references to being trained by the U.S. military and ordered to commit murders by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.Image via FBI

The names of the Hortmans and the Hoffmans were written in the notebooks, along with the two other homes he reportedly visited that night, those of state Rep. Kristin Bahner (DFL-Maple Grove) and state Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope). Bahner’s family was not at home. Boelter was apparently scared away from the area near Rest’s home when New Hope police vehicles began arriving to check on the senator.

One chilling scribbled note read:

If you want to save the country you have to get your hands dirty.

Another entry said:

Doing what most people know needs to be done, but are not willing to do it themselves.

In text messages and two jail video interviews with the New York Post, Boelter said his pro-life views and support for Republican President Donald J. Trump were not his motivations in allegedly carrying out the deadly shooting rampage. He would not say specifically what his reasons were, making a vague reference to things going on in Minnesota in 2023.

RELATED: Vance Boelter’s wife speaks out for first time since June 14 shooting rampage

Handwritten notes the FBI said came from the writings of Vance Luther Boelter indicate that he was willing to get his “hands dirty” to “save the country.”Image via FBI

Thompson said he believes Boelter’s alleged statement in the letter about being “trained by U.S. military people off the books starting in college” is likely not some kind of delusion but more likely Boelter’s attempt to justify the crimes.

Boelter made similar claims on the website of Praetorian Guard Security Services, a residential security company he unsuccessfully tried to launch between 2018 and 2024.

“Dr. Vance Boelter has been involved with security situations in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America, and the Middle East, including the West Bank, Southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip,” said his profile on a 2024 version of the website archived on the Wayback Machine. “He brings a great security aspect forged by both many on-the-ground experiences combined with training by both private security firms and people in the U.S. military.”

A geofencing study of Boelter’s home address in Green Isle identified a unique cell phone that pinged in overseas locations between 2022 and 2025, including Turkey, Dubai, Africa, India, and Nepal, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Oversight Project.

Cased the Hortman home

Among the new details released Tuesday by prosecutors was the revelation that a man matching Boelter’s description was seen on the Hortmans’ home security system the day before the killings. The video “depicts a man, wearing a rain jacket with the hood up, briefly walking around the side and back of the home,” the FBI said.

“Hours before this, at approximately 6:55 p.m., security cameras near Boelter’s temporary residence on Fremont Avenue recorded Boelter, wearing a rain jacket with the hood up, carrying what appears to be body armor and a duffel bag to one of his black SUVs.”

Entries in the notebooks indicated that the suspect did research on the lawmakers, their spouses, and their children and accessed Google Maps to determine the best travel routes.

The FBI seized a laptop computer left behind in the Buick sedan that Boelter allegedly abandoned in Belle Plaine. “The laptop also shows extensive use of Google Maps in the months and weeks leading up to the attacks,” the FBI said. “The laptop data shows the Hortman home address was entered in Google Maps as early as May 15, 2025.”

‘I support the police and didn’t want to see them hurt.’

The computer contained a query for Hortman on TruePeopleSearch.com on May 15 and a search for Hoffman on PeopleFinder.com on June 4, the FBI said. Melissa Hortman’s name was reportedly first entered into Boelter’s Garmin GPS unit on May 15, which Thompson said showed the amount of time and level of planning that went into the attacks.

“It was a crime committed first and foremost against the Hortmans and the Hoffmans and their families,” Thompson said. “But this political assassination, the likes of which have never occurred here in the state of Minnesota, has [shaken] our state at a foundational level.”

A Minnesota state fire marshal stands guard at the bier of state Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, her husband, Mark Hortman, and their golden retriever, Gilbert, at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul on June 27, 2025.Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Boelter’s alleged crime spree began just after 2 a.m. when he pounded on the front door of the Hoffmans in Champlin, the FBI said. Mrs. Hoffman quickly realized that the suspect was wearing a mask and was not a real police officer. The senator tried to push Boelter out the front door and was shot nine times, police said.

“Mrs. Hoffman attempted to shut Boelter outside the home by shutting the door on him, but Boelter then shot Mrs. Hoffman repeatedly. After the shooting, Boelter fled in the black SUV,” the affidavit said.

Hope Hoffman told police that “Boelter shot at her too, with bullets narrowly missing her as she saw her mother and father get shot.”

Boelter found no one home at the residence of Rep. Bahner in Maple Grove, so he drove to New Hope and parked about a block from the home of Sen. Rest, the FBI said.

A New Hope police officer pulled alongside Boelter’s SUV at 2:36 a.m., rolled down the car window, and tried to get his attention, the FBI said, but Boelter stared straight ahead and didn’t acknowledge her. The officer then drove away toward Sen. Rest’s home.

In his alleged confession letter, Boelter said that had he wanted to, he could have killed the New Hope officer.

“Cops were pulling up right next to me in their vehicles and I had an AK pistol aimed right at her head and I could have left a pile of cops dead but I did [sic] shoot 1 bullet towards law enforcement,” the letter said. “You can ask them because I support the police and didn’t want to see them hurt.”

After allegedly executing the Hortmans, Boelter fled out the back door and began shedding his disguise, body armor, and weapons as he ran, the FBI said. A partly disassembled 9mm Beretta pistol was found along his escape route. Another 9mm Beretta handgun was retrieved by police from a nearby pond.

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