MINNEAPOLIS — Police and federal agents swarmed the Minnesota farm community after discovering a car and a hat belonging to suspected assassin Vance Boelter — ordering residents to stay indoors and lock their homes and vehicles.
The discovery was made on a rural road about 50 miles southwest of Minneapolis in Sibley County, near his last known address in Green Isle.
The massive manhunt, which involves federal agents and state and local cops, is underway after Boelter, 57, allegedly went on a shooting spree while posing as a police office early Saturday, which authorities are calling an act of “targeted political violence.”
Boelter is accused of executing former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home early Saturday, just prior to shooting and seriously wounding state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in their house.
Both politicians are members of the Democratic-Farmer-Laborer Party, the state’s branch of the Democratic Party.
Hours after the bloodbath, Boelter sent a chilling text message to two friends indicating he “may be dead shortly” and saying he was “sorry for all the trouble this has caused,” ostensibly referring to the quadruple shooting targeting Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses.
Area residents told NewsNation they heard the sound of gunshots ringing out in the early morning hours Sunday, compounding suspicions Boelter might have taken his own life.
His roommate at a house in North Minneapolis where the suspect lived a few days out of the week, told The Post that he didn’t believe Boelter would be found alive.
“He’s not going to jail. He’s going to be a suicide because of the text,” Matthew said.
His other roommate, best friend David Carlson, told The Post Boelter had been “struggling” and that his personality had noticeably changed since he returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo several months ago.
Boelter made numerous trips to the central African nation in the last few years in his capacity as CEO of a firm called Red Lion Group, about which little is known but which Boelter refers to on his LinkedIn profile.
Boelter claimed to have business ventures in Democratic Republic of Congo spanning fishing, farming, media, security and motorcycle-taxis. He wrote on his LinkedIn last month that he had just returned after a three-year stint in the country and was looking for work in the food service industry.
His profile mentions positions he previously held with companies including 7-Eleven, Del Monte and Johnsonville.
“I thought his demeanor [changed], he wasn’t as cheerful as he used to be. Since he got back from Africa, I guess,” he said, adding he got back four months ago and quit his job to go there.
“He came back and he was struggling a little bit. I thought it was normal struggles.”
