Live: Residents gather in Brooklyn Park to pray for slain and injured leaders and their families

Vance Boelter, the man accused of shooting two Minnesota state legislators and their spouses, visited the homes of four lawmakers over the course of a few hours early Saturday.

Federal prosecutors have charged Boelter, who made his first court appearance Monday afternoon in St. Paul.

Boelter, 57, allegedly posed as a police officer and assassinated state House DFL leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in the middle of the night Saturday, according to authorities. He is also charged with shooting state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.

Boelter was also charged in Hennepin County with two counts each of second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder.

Here’s what we know so far:

Follow live updates below:

9:07 p.m. - During a prayer service, Joy Daniel, a Brooklyn Park resident of 30 years, said he lived not far from the Hortman residence. He said Saturday’s shootings were a big shock.

He said Hortman stopped by to chat sometimes, and he was struck by her interest in the community’s concerns and suggestions.

“A big part of my role, once we caught the suspect, I think it becomes about turning to healing,” Brooklyn Park Mayor Hollies Winston said.

He said he saw people at the prayer service who he knew didn’t agree politically with him, but he was glad they could come together and have an opportunity to shake hands.

“It’s time for us to come together and realize we have much more in common than differences,” he said.

As Brooklyn Park heals, the city will also hold community events in the coming days, Winston said.

“He is the real thing,” he said. “He is an undying advocate for the groups that he represents.”

He said Hoffman holds long town halls to listen to the needs of his constituents, and cares deeply about immigrants, people with disabilities and other marginalized people.

8:39 p.m. - Suzy Scheller, chair of the Grace Fellowship church’s elder board and a Champlin resident, offered prayers for the friends and families of the Hortmans and Hoffmans during a Monday night prayer service.

The pastor also prayed over Brooklyn Park Mayor Hollies Winston and his wife.

“I can’t even imagine the heaviness of the moment that they have felt,” Lead Pastor Joe Boyd said, as he prayed that community leaders continue to lead with energy and wisdom.

“I don’t think any of us expected to wake up on Saturday with shocking news,” Pastor Joe Boyd said. “Minor events are things that happen elsewhere. Major events happen very close to us. And what we’ve got through is a major event.”

7:28 p.m. - Sophie and Colin Hortman released a statement Monday night on behalf of the Hortman family. The statement went as following:

“We are devastated and heartbroken at the loss of our parents, Melissa and Mark. They were the bright lights at the center of our lives, and we can’t believe they are gone. Their love for us was boundless. We miss them so much.”

“We want everyone to know that we are both safe and with loved ones. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have received, and we appreciate your respect for our family’s privacy as we grieve.”

“Our family would like to thank law enforcement for their swift action that saved others and for the coordination across communities that led to the arrest of the man who murdered our parents. We especially would like to thank the officers who were first on the scene to our parents’ home and their heroic attempts to rescue our mom and dad.”

If you would like to honor the memory of Mark and Melissa, please consider the following:

“Hope and resilience are the enemy of fear. Our parents lived their lives with immense dedication to their fellow humans. This tragedy must become a moment for us to come together. Hold your loved ones a little closer. Love your neighbors. Treat each other with kindness and respect. The best way to honor our parents’ memory is to do something, whether big or small, to make our community just a little better for someone else.”

5:05 p.m. - For six years, Republican Speaker Lisa Demuth closely observed how DFL House Leader Melissa Hortman led the House of Representatives. She did it fairly, Demuth said Monday in her Capitol office in one of her first interviews since Hortman’s death on Saturday.

Hortman led through example, Demuth said, and she emphasized building relationships and understanding while eschewing social media. Then, earlier this year with the House tied 67-67, Demuth got her own chance to wield power when Hortman handed over her speaker’s gavel. Demuth said she tried to emulate the standard Hortman set through a difficult legislative session that required long, tense budget discussions.

“We got along really well, and it’s because she started building that working relationship over the years,” Demuth said. “Without that happening, it would have made this year a lot harder.”

The alleged gunman appeared to have conservative views and to be targeting pro-abortion rights lawmakers and abortion clinics, though people who knew him said he was mild-mannered. Asked for her thoughts about abortion being a possible motivating factor, Demuth said she couldn’t say.

“This person is completely a monster,” Demuth said. “No rational agreement or disagreement on any type of policy should ever lead to something like this.”

1:56 p.m. - Vance Boelter appeared in person Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in St. Paul wearing an orange jumpsuit.

A federal public defender was appointed to him. After U.S. Magistrate Judge John Docherty asked how he pronounced his name, Boelter said it is pronounced “Belter.”

As Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley M. Endicott read the serious criminal charges, Boelter looked on. He was polite during the hearing and projected his voice throughout the courtroom while learning forward to speak into a microphone. He told Docherty that he understands the charges against him and has read the criminal complaint. He also said he owns his home and works part time, making “maybe $540 per week.” He said he has no source of income.

1:36 p.m. - State Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, said in a statement Monday that Boelter had parked near her home early on Saturday morning. Federal prosecutors said Boelter left after New Hope police arrived on the scene.

“I have been made aware that the shooting suspect was parked near my home early Saturday morning,” she said in a statement Monday afternoon. “I am so grateful for the heroic work of the New Hope Police Department and its officers. Their quick action saved my life. I am also thankful for the work of state and local law enforcement to apprehend the suspect before he could take any more lives. While I am thankful the suspect has been apprehended, I grieve for the loss of Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and I am praying for the recovery of John and Yvette Hoffman.”

Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson said that suspect Vance Boelter visited the homes of four Minnesota state lawmakers over the course of several hours early Saturday.

1:05 p.m. - A special election to fill slain DFL House leader Melissa Hortman’s seat will be held at some point before next February.

State law lays out how and when special elections are to be held to fill vacant seats in the Legislature. In this case, Gov. Tim Walz has until the beginning of the next legislative session, in February 2026, to call the election.

Read more about the process here.

12:44 p.m. - Brooklyn Park police Sgt. Rielly Nordan had just wrapped up his shift early Saturday morning when he heard that Champlin police were responding to a shooting at a home — and one of the victims was a state senator.

Nobody knew then that lawmakers, or anyone other than Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were being targeted. But Nordan knew that Rep. Melissa Hortman lived nearby, in Brooklyn Park, and would be worried.

“His shift is over, he’s taken off his gear,” Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said. “And as he’s walking out, he looks at a couple officers, and says, ‘Hey, just to be safe, why don’t you go up and just check on Hortman’s house?’”

It was a proactive decision from an experienced officer that allowed police to first confront suspected shooter Vance Boelter, starting an exhaustive manhunt that would end 43 hours later in a farm field near Green Isle in Sibley County.

11:35 a.m. - The “police” insignia on the license plate of Vance Boelter’s SUV appears to have been put together by reflective letters similar to what would appear on a mailbox, said Joe Thompson, acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota.

11:29 a.m. - “It’s too early to tell” whether federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty, but “it remains one of our options, though,” said Joe Thompson, acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota.

He added that the state murder charges remain in place, but he expects federal charges will be handled first.

11:27 a.m. - Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson said a police officer in New Hope saw Vance Boelter at another state senator’s home on Saturday between his alleged shooting of John and Yvette Hoffman and the killing of Melissa and Mark Hortman.

Thompson said the officer pulled up on Boelter in his police-style SUV and assumed he had been dispatched to the scene to perform a wellness check. When the officer asked Boelter what he was doing, he simply stared straight ahead, Thompson said. The New Hope police officer then left Boelter to continue on with the wellness check.

11:24 a.m. - Vance Boelter is facing six federal charges, acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson announced.

11:18 a.m. - Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said that Vance Boelter “planned his attack carefully.” Boelter allegedly researched his victims and their families and conducted surveillance on their homes.

Thompson detailed the steps Boelter allegedly took to impersonate a police officer.

“Of course he wore a hyper-realistic silicone mask. The video of his arrival and shooting of Senator Hoffman is truly chilling. There’s no exaggeration that this is the stuff of nightmares,” Thompson said.

11:12 a.m. - At a news conference announcing federal charges, acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said Vance Boelter went to the homes of four Minnesota politicians early Saturday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is scheduled to share statements about the federal case at 11 a.m., including the distribution of the federal criminal complaint against Boelter.

10:41 a.m. - A woman said she was driving shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday, after stopping by a friend’s house to get a phone number, looked to her left and there he was, the most wanted of men in Minnesota.

“There is a person in the grass,” Wendy Thomas said Monday, her pace of speech accelerating as she recounted her unanticipated countryside encounter a few miles east of Green Isle.

She knew at that moment it had to be him, Vance Boelter, the subject of a two-day manhunt on allegations that he shot two state legislators and their spouses in their Twin Cities area homes.

“He walked toward the culvert, and he squatted,” she said, thinking her gaze must have made Boelter, dressed in black and muddied, lower his profile.

“‘He’s right there!’” Thomas said she told the officers. “I’m pointing. But then I’m doubting myself. Am I wasting my time? I was just hysterical. I was freaking out.”

Read the woman’s full account here.

10:25 a.m. - Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said U.S. marshals were scheduled to pick up Vance Boelter this morning, but she would not comment further on their role in prosecuting Boelter.

She said the second-degree murder and attempted murder charges were filed Saturday to allow for the nationwide warrant for Boelter’s arrest.

10:15 a.m. - Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said she intends to pursue first-degree murder charges against Vance Boelter, adding that her office’s most senior prosecutors are working the case.

Moriarty also called on the public to lower the temperature of political debate.

“It is a frightening time we are living in,” she said. “Political violence is prevalent. And the way we talk to and about each other has raised the temperature to unfathomable levels. We cannot continue on this way.”

10:05 a.m. - Vance Boelter is being held in the custody of U.S. marshals as he awaits his first court appearance in federal court Monday afternoon.

After being arrested late Sunday in a field in Sibley County, Boelter was booked into Hennepin County jail after being delivered by the Brooklyn Park Police Department just after 1 a.m. Monday. His bail was set at $5 million, but he is now being held by marshals at the U.S. Courthouse in St. Paul.

Boelter will now appear in federal court at 1:30 p.m. after he was initially slated for a first hearing at the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility.

9:39 a.m. - Federal prosecutors have announced Vance Boelter will appear in federal court Monday afternoon following his arrest.

Boelter is now in federal custody and will appear in the St. Paul courthouse at 1:30 p.m. after initially slated for a first hearing at the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is scheduled to share statements about the federal case at 11 a.m.

8:19 a.m. - The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is scheduled to hold a news conference on the charges against Vance Boelter at 10 a.m. Monday.

7:14 a.m. - The search for Vance Boelter was “the largest manhunt in the state’s history,” according to Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley, who said that 20 SWAT teams were part of the effort.

“The suspect crawled to law enforcement teams and was placed under arrest at that point in time,” Lt. Col. Jeremy Geiger of the State Patrol said. “There was no use of force by any member of law enforcement that was out there, and the suspect was taken into custody without any use of force.”

7:11 a.m. - The massive police effort to apprehend Vance Boelter included the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, a helicopter and infrared technology, according to the BCA’s Drew Evans.

“The technology in cases like this are incredible tools to be able to supplement the great hard work of all the people that were on the ground every day,” he said.

Evans said Boelter was taken into custody in a rural area characterized by “streams, fields, woods, crops.” He was ultimately arrested in a field.

6:31 a.m. - Vance Boelter is being held on $5 million bail after being booked into the Hennepin County jail after 1 a.m. Monday. Records indicate he is being held in City Hall, which houses inmates across the street from the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility in downtown Minneapolis.

6 a.m. - Melissa and Mark Hortman’s children had to put down the family’s dog Gilbert, whom Boelter reportedly shot, according to a colleague of the DFL leader.

“Melissa loved that dog,” Rep. Erin Koegel wrote on X on Sunday night. “She trained him as a service dog. He flunked out of school and she was so happy he failed so he could stay! She needed him in heaven with her.”