Vance Luther Boelter says he went to the home of Democrat Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman on June 14 to make a citizen’s arrest but ended up shooting at the senator, his wife, and his daughter when all three laid hands on him to push him out the door, the assassination suspect told Blaze News.
In an exclusive interview, Boelter told Blaze News that it was never his intention to shoot anyone that night, but his plans went wrong as soon as Sen. Hoffman, 60, opened the door to his Champlin home just after 2 a.m.
‘I kept shooting until I realized I was outside the door.’
Boelter said he did not expect the Hoffmans’ daughter Hope, 28, to be at the home that night, so his original plan to detain the senator and restrain his wife went off the rails. So he told the family instead, “This is a robbery.”
“As soon as I said it was a robbery, the senator got wide-eyed and closed the five feet between us and started to grab me,” Boelter said. “… After he grabbed me, then his wife came over and grabbed me, too. I still didn’t shoot because I didn’t go there to shoot people, just to do a citizen’s arrest.
“After his wife grabbed me, then his daughter came forward and grabbed me also,” Boelter said. “So I had six arms on me and realized I’m going to lose control of any shots [that] were fired.”
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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 from Boelter indictment
Boelter said if it was his plan to kill people, he would not have stood at the Hoffmans’ front door talking to them prior to the shooting.
“If I had gone there just to shoot people, I could have just did three head shots and walked away,” Boelter said. “And if that was my intention, I would have had a suppressor and I sure would not have been standing around talking to people.”
Blaze News has reached out to acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson for comment on Boelter’s new statements about June 14.
In his first extended comments since being arrested June 15 after the largest manhunt in Minnesota history, Boelter said his original plan was to restrain Sen. Hoffman and his wife with zip-tie cuffs and place eye masks on each to prevent them from seeing what was going on. But Hope Hoffman’s presence at the door made it evident that would not work, he said.
“When the senator answered the door, I soon found out it was him, his wife and daughter,” Boelter said from the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, Minn., where he is being held pending federal trial on murder and attempted murder charges. “So I was trying to figure out and say, ‘This is a robbery.’
“My assumption was that the senator would put up his hands and say something like, ‘Take what you want and leave,’” Boelter said. “Especially when his wife and daughter were right there. I quickly [did] what I could do to get his wife and daughter out of the room just long enough to secure the senator and get him to the car.
‘I think about both of those families every day, and every night.’
“The only thing I could think of at the moment was to pull out my gun,” Boelter continued. “Had my gun out. Then my thought was I could tell his wife and daughter to go get whatever money they had and bring it to me. Just to get them out of the room. That was the only idea I had.”
Boelter said Hope Hoffman’s public comments that her life flashed before her eyes because a gun was in her face are accurate, but the gun was not aimed at her.
“If you read the quote of the daughter when they first started talking about it, the daughter said she saw her life flash before her eyes because the gun was right in front of her face,” Boelter said. “That was a true statement because the gun was inches from her face but pointing down when I started shooting.
Aimed at the ground
“They later said they pushed her out of the way, but that wasn’t true,” he said. “They all three had grabbed me before my gun in a matter of seconds. So I could have started shooting at people’s heads because they were all right by me, but I just aimed my gun down between them and me at the ground and started shooting.
“I started aiming in between us at the floor, hoping I would not shoot my own foot,” Boelter said. “But there were six arms on me at that point and one also on my shooting arm. My guess is if it ever comes out where the senator and his wife were hit will be in their arms, legs, and feet, but I have no idea.”
In a series of text messages with Blaze News between Aug. 8 and Aug. 11, Boelter began revealing more details of his alleged role in the crime that ended the life of state Rep. Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and her husband, Mark Hortman.
Boelter said he knew prosecutors would be monitoring the text conversation, but added, “I’m just wanting the truth to get out. People can believe it or not believe it. God knows everything that happened.”
When asked by Blaze News if he ever thinks about Melissa Hortman or her husband, Boelter said he does.
“I can’t talk about my case, but I think about both of those families every day, and every night,” Boelter said on Aug. 8. “I also think about the hundreds of other Minnesota citizens that have died in the last several years that have not been talked about but should have.”
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Photos by FBI, Praetorian Guard Security Services
Boelter said his plan to make citizen’s arrests of state lawmakers grew out of a two-year undercover investigation he did while working for two Minneapolis-area funeral homes and the University of Minnesota eye bank. That investigation, he said, confirmed that the mRNA shots taken by millions of Americans in response to the COVID-19 virus were killing people.
The investigation involved what Boelter said were the sudden and unexpected deaths of some 400 Minnesota residents that were being covered up by the state government.
In the exchange of hundreds of text messages with Blaze News through the jail’s NCIC Correctional Services inmate communication system, Boelter said he went to work in the funeral industry to investigate the alleged mRNA deaths after seeing people he knew die prematurely after receiving the controversial shots.
Boelter earlier told Alpha News that his original plan to make citizen’s arrests of state lawmakers had gone “horribly wrong.” He insisted that it was never his intention to shoot or kill anyone.
The FBI said Boelter was dressed as a police officer and drove a 2015 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor SUV to visit or attempt to visit the homes of four Democrat state politicians in the predawn hours of June 14.
Boelter reportedly first pounded on the door of Sen. Hoffman just after 2 a.m. He was wearing a “hyper-realistic” silicone full-head disguise, the FBI said. Although he was shining a tactical flashlight in their faces, the Hoffmans realized Boelter wore a mask and told him he was not a police officer, the FBI said.
When the Hoffmans tried to push Boelter out of the home, he fired on them, striking Sen. Hoffman and his wife 17 times, the FBI and the Hoffmans said. Prosecutors said Boelter also fired at Hope Hoffman and intended to kill her, but her parents shielded her and she was able to call 911 at around 2:05 a.m.
The Hoffmans underwent emergency surgery and survived the bullet wounds.
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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 FBI said Boelter first told the Hoffmans there was a report of a shooting and asked them if there were any guns in the home. Senator Hoffman said there were guns present but they were secured, prosecutors said in charging documents.
Although Boelter was shining his tactical flashlight in the Hoffmans’ faces, Yvette Hoffman noticed he was wearing a mask and told him he was not a real police officer, the FBI said. At that point, Boelter then apparently said, “This is a robbery.” Audio of the interaction was caught on a home security camera, along with a terrifying image of the perpetrator in a disguise.
Had intended August arrests
Boelter said despite claims by the FBI and prosecutors, the full-head silicone mask he wore as a disguise cost only $38, not $350 or more. The lower-quality mask became a problem during the scuffle with the Hoffmans, he said.
“The other thing is that mask wasn’t this high-end $350 mask,” Boelter told Blaze News. “I had looked at web sites that had high-end masks but wasn’t expecting to do these citizen’s arrests until August. So the one I had was just a $38 mask. Pretty poor.
“So as they grabbed me, the mask was getting shifted, so my ability to see was getting less and less,” Boelter said. “That is why I kept shooting until I realized I was outside the door.”
Once Hope Hoffman shut and locked the door, Boelter retreated to his Ford SUV and left the area. She told 911 dispatchers that her parents were shot and that her father is state Senator John Hoffman.
During the three-minute call placed at about 2:05 a.m., Hope Hoffman said, “My dad has been shot.” After being asked to repeat her address several times, Hoffman exclaimed, “SHOT. SHOT. MY PARENTS HAVE BEEN SHOT!”
After the dispatch center transferred the call to paramedics, Hope Hoffman indicated that her father is a state senator. Police said that detail was key, because word was sent to area law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for the shooter in case the crime was targeted.
Boelter told Blaze News that he knew the Hoffmans had an adult daughter but did not expect her to be at her parents’ home on June 14.
“I had expected just two people at the first location,” Boelter said. “I was aware they had an adult daughter but thought she would be living somewhere else.
“I had probably a dozen sleeping masks, the kind you wear when you want to sleep,” he said. “Those were to restrict what people were seeing. I also had a bunch of long, thick wire ties for restraining people. But when I went to the first house, I just had two sleeping masks and four wire ties on me because I was only expecting two people.”
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Hundreds of police officers search for Vance Luther Boelter in Sibley County, Minn., a day after Boelter allegedly killed a top Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, and grievously wounded a state senator and his wife.Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Boelter said he held his fire when Sen. Hoffman and his wife put hands on him because he did not want to shoot anyone. “If I had gone there to just shoot people, I could have just shot him in the face or in the heart,” Boelter said. “But I just held my fire because I didn’t go there to shoot anyone.”
During a brief arraignment in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Aug. 7, Boelter entered not-guilty pleas to six charges included in a grand jury indictment handed up July 15. Charges include stalking, murder, attempted murder, and firearms violations. Boelter could face the death penalty if convicted on the charges of murdering the Hortmans.
He also faces second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder charges in Hennepin County District Court, but those charges will wait for disposition of the federal criminal case against Boelter.
Blaze News learned that the 2015 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor SUV Boelter allegedly drove on June 14 was from his security company, Praetorian Guard Security Services, and was originally owned by the Osceola Police Department in Polk County, Wisconsin.
At 2:24 a.m. that night, Boelter also drove to the home of Rep. Kristin Bahner (DFL-Maple Grove), but she and her family were not at home, according to the FBI.
Twelve minutes later, Boelter was apparently seen parked a block away from the home of state Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope). A New Hope police officer tried to get his attention, but she drove away to check on the safety of Sen. Rest. Boelter, meanwhile, slipped away, the FBI said. In an alleged confession letter left in the suspect’s getaway vehicle on June 15, he said he did not want to harm police that night either.
“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.”
Boelter allegedly next drove to the home of the Hortmans in Brooklyn Park, ringing the doorbell and shouting, “Police! Welfare check!” After Mark Hortman answered the door, Boelter shone the flashlight in his eyes and said there had been a report of shots fired, police said.
Around 3:35 a.m., two officers from the Brooklyn Park Police Department arrived in front of the home. Boelter then allegedly began shooting Mark Hortman, opened fire on the officers, and forced his way into the home, the FBI said. As Melissa Hortman tried to flee upstairs, the perpetrator shot her to death, according to a federal indictment.
COVID death investigation
Boelter told Blaze News he took several jobs in the funeral industry to gather evidence that COVID shots were killing people.
“One hundred percent of [my] work in the funeral industry was all for the investigation,” Boelter said. “Only reason for doing all that. Had heard and read a lot about people dying after getting the Covid-19 shot.
“Then several who I was aware of personally died and saw the devastation on the families,” said Boelter, who declined to identify the deceased individuals.
Boelter said he had increasing access to the operations of the funeral homes and the deceased individuals whom he was in charge of picking up and transporting to the mortuaries. He also had access at hospitals and the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office, he said. He did not say what evidence he gathered at those locations.
After a career in the food industry, Boelter said he had no experience working for funeral homes doing transport, embalming, cremation, or other roles. He enrolled online in the mortuary science program at Des Moines Area Community College, which allowed him to start as a transfer specialist and eventually move up to working by himself doing body pickups.
Vance Luther Boelter just after being captured June 15 in Sibley County, Minn., and (right) as he was booked into the Hennepin County Jail.Alpha News/Hennepin County Sheriff
His first job in 2023 was at Wulff Funeral Homes, a division of Dignity Memorial with locations in Woodbury and St. Paul. Dignity Memorial is a brand owned by Service Corporation International, based in Houston. In August 2023, he began working for Metro First Call LLC based in Savage, Minn. In 2023 he also enrolled in mortuary classes at DMACC, the college said in a statement.
Timothy Koch, owner of Metro First Call, said he knew nothing about Boelter doing an investigation.
“We have never heard of such an investigation,” Koch told Blaze News. “We had no idea that his time at our company was part of an investigation.”
“There was at least a three-month period, maybe four months, I can’t remember, where every two weeks I was working seven days at SCI [Wulff], and seven days at MFC, so basically seven days a week no days off for three or four months straight,” Boelter told Blaze News. “And these were eight-hour shifts at SCI [Wulff] and mostly 12-hour or 10-hour shifts at MFC.”
During this time, Boelter began renting a room from a childhood friend in north Minneapolis because his home in Green Isle was too long a long commute while working a demanding schedule, said David Carlson, who grew up with Boelter in Sleepy Eye, Minn.
“During that time I was probably transferring 28+ bodies a week,” Boelter said. “Then Minnesota created a new position called transfer care specialist. Which if you were trained in that role you were allowed to go by yourself to pick up bodies from places of death without having a funeral director go. So when that happened I became a transfer care specialist and no longer needed to be enrolled at DMACC and be taking classes there.”
Boelter declined to say what his investigation learned. He said doing so now could jeopardize the evidence he gathered.
“What I found confirms what I had heard when I started my investigation two years ago,” Boelter said, “that Covid-19 shots were directly causing the death of some people. That is all I’ll say on that.”
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Vance boelter, John hoffman, Melissa hortman, Assassination, Minnesota, Politics