From the first 911 call, moments after Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot at their home in the early morning of June 14, police knew a masked gunman was impersonating an officer, had targeted a politician and was on the move.
Yet it would take 10 hours for law enforcement to systematically alert lawmakers to the exact nature of the danger they faced. Communication across a patchwork of agencies was also spotty, leaving some officials unaware of the threat for hours and raising questions about whether the suspect, Vance Boelter, could have been caught earlier.
In at least one instance, police didn’t follow their own procedures when they responded to attacks on the homes of lawmakers.
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The initial 911 call, made at 2:05 a.m. by the Hoffmans’ daughter, Hope, included the fact that the suspect was disguised as a police officer and wearing a mask.
In a deviation from department policy, Brooklyn Park police waited more than an hour to enter the home of Melissa Hortman after watching Mark Hortman get shot in the doorway.
Minnesota Star Tribune
What?!
At 3:35 a.m., two Brooklyn Park police officers arrived at the Hortman residence. Those officers fired at Boelter as he entered the house after shooting Mark Hortman. Additional muzzle flashes from Boelter inside the home lit up the entryway.
Despite the gunfire, officers didn’t enter the house until 4:38 a.m., according to timestamps on the bodycam footage. Instead of entering the home immediately to check on Melissa Hortman, the officers waited for a drone to be deployed to see if Boelter was inside and if Melissa Hortman was still alive.
She might have been an hour earlier!
After shooting the Hortmans and the family dog, Gilbert, Boelter allegedly escaped out the back door, which was propped open. He then dumped his mask, wig and gun, and was on the run for 43 hours before being captured.
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Bruley said in an interview with the Minnesota Reformer this month that his officers were using de-escalation tactics in the pursuit of Boelter.
That's some serious de-escalation - wait an hour for him to get away.
Brooklyn Park’s use-of-force policy says officers can use deadly force to prevent death or great bodily harm. It says de-escalation can only be used when delay will not “compromise the safety” of someone else, lead to another crime or result in the suspect’s escape.
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A senior law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and has been in several active shooter situations, said this was not a situation that called for de-escalation but fit the description of an active shooter. That meant officers should have gone into the house to confront Boelter.
No shit. This is very strange. Were these cops new hires from Uvalde, Texas?
Asked if it seemed reasonable that it took an hour for anyone to physically check on whether Melissa Hortman was still alive, Masson said, “It seems like a long time. But I don’t know the circumstances of why.”
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New Hope police didn’t immediately communicate an officer’s interaction with Boelter, which occurred after the Hoffmans were shot but before the Hortmans were killed.
Some police officers and legislators weren’t made fully aware of the threat for several hours.
It almost sounds like the police were in on the assassinations. Not sure they could have been much more helpful to the killer if they had been.
State Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson said that “law enforcement did an admirable job of trying to respond and make sure they were doing their very best in this case.”
Really?
“We have received several requests to do an inquiry or a review related to the communication around the rapid response,” Legislative Auditor Judy Randall said Thursday.
I should hope so.
The first interaction between law enforcement and Boelter took place near the home of Sen. Ann Rest at 2:36 a.m. when a New Hope police officer “self-dispatched” to perform a spot check on Rest’s home. The officer, a 12-year veteran, encountered Boelter sitting in his makeshift police vehicle.
The officer believed Boelter was a police officer who was checking on Rest and asked Boelter to roll down his window. He was a “bald, white male, staring straight ahead,” according to court records. Boelter didn’t respond to the New Hope officer, who left to check on Rest.
WTF?
When the officer returned, Boelter was gone.
It also isn’t clear what the New Hope officer knew at that time and why she was on her way to Rest’s home.
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The New Hope Police Department has declined several requests to share more information about the interaction. They provided the Star Tribune with a police report on the incident that doesn’t make any mention of the encounter with Boelter.
Is it a cover up, or are the New Hope police just terribly incompetent. Perhaps we should rename the town: No Hope.
Inside law enforcement circles, Boelter’s interaction with the New Hope officer after the shooting of the Hoffmans was instantly critiqued.
A video shared with the Star Tribune that was allegedly passed among officers within days of the shootings includes a clip from the film “The Town” that shows a group of bank robbers dressed as nuns and wearing silicone masks when they pull up beside a Boston police officer. The men are holding guns and the officer stares at them for several seconds before letting them leave.
In the modified clip, the logo for the New Hope Police Department is superimposed on the cop car.
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After he escaped, the dire nature of Boelter’s plans was not immediately conveyed to politicians. Several were told to contact local law enforcement for protection only to learn their local law enforcement had no idea about the attack.
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The first widespread dissemination of the information to law enforcement was sent out at 4:25 a.m. via teletype to agencies in the seven-county metro area. Jacobson said it’s the only system that exists to get the information to every dispatch center.
Teletype? In 2025?
Jacobson shared a message for legislative leaders to send to their members, warning of a “dangerous individual” who’s made threats against state legislators and other prominent figures. He urged lawmakers to contact their local law enforcement. He did not mention the suspected gunman impersonated a police officer and carried a list of targets.
And threats. Not attacks. What on earth?
[Gov Tim] Walz and public safety leaders held the first news conference about the lawmaker shootings around 9:45 a.m., discussing what happened and sharing that the alleged assailant impersonated a cop and carried a list of targets.
The Department of Public Safety worked with federal authorities to share the initial list with relevant local law enforcement. But the DPS didn’t share the list with the House and Senate caucuses until 11:59 a.m., after Boelter had been on the run for several hours.
Maye Quade, the state senator from Apple Valley, said her local police department didn’t learn she was on the target list until about 9 a.m. Apple Valley police reached out to her quickly, but by that time, Maye Quade said she and her wife had already fled their home.
“It’s hard for me knowing that I was on a terrorist’s hit list, and he was successful in shooting one of my colleagues and his wife and murdering another colleague and her husband, and that information wasn’t shared with my local police department for hours,” she said.
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“When you hide information like the shooter is impersonating a police officer, and then no one tells you that,” said Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights. “I would have answered my door to Vance Boelter, and five out of my six family members were here.”
“I don’t know how to feel about that,” Gustafson added. “Who was supposed to tell me not to answer my door, and why didn’t they?”
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“There’s nothing else my police department could have done because they didn’t know,” Maye Quade added.
Jacobson said his department is close to finalizing an agreement for an independent after-action review to show “what went well in a horrible situation and here’s what we can improve on.”
I'm very curious. What went well?
He added that he’s already hearing from law enforcement agencies across the state that are starting to build their own databases of local elected officials.
There are police departments that
don't have that? I bet they have a database of all the Mexicans in their town.
