FBI Offers $50K Reward for Info on Suspect in Shootings of Minnesota Lawmakers

A Minnesota man who had built an eclectic career weaving from food service to international religious missionary work and local political appointments is at the center of a manhunt.

Vance Boelter, a 57-year-old man from Green Isle, Minn., has been identified as the main suspect in the killings of Minnesota House DFL leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the attempted slayings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife.

Biographical details from several online profiles show that Boelter was intimately familiar with politics and public safety in Minnesota.

Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said at a news conference that Boelter was armed and dangerous.

“Today we are asking for the public’s help at this point in time in locating Vance Luther Boelter,” Evans said.

Boelter reportedly is 6-feet-1, 220 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. A surveillance photo taken by a Minneapolis business on Saturday shows him wearing a dark-colored coat with a collar and a tan cowboy hat.

“He is a person of interest that we are looking to locate,” Evans said. “We are asking the public if you do see him or locate him, call 911. Do not approach him. You should consider him armed and dangerous.”

The FBI announced a reward of up to $50,000 leading to Boelter’s arrest and conviction, and included photos of him wearing what appears to be a mask as he approaches one of the homes.

Evans said law enforcement believes Boelter is potentially trying to “flee the area.” He said hundreds of officers are involved in trying to locate him.

Authorities were investigating whether the suspect knew Hoffman or Hortman.

Evans said there is “certainly some overlap with some public meetings” between Hoffman and Boelter, but that law enforcement didn’t know anything about their relationship or if they knew each other.

Green Isle is a town of about 600 set in farmland area of waterlogged fields and rolling hills about 55 miles southwest of Minneapolis. Boelter’s house is off a gravel road about five miles from town.

Sibley County Sheriff Pat Nienaber had numerous area law enforcement and ambulances at a staging area in a ballfield in the town of Green Isle. Nienaber said the department has had a few contacts with Boelter in the past but all were “very minor “

Boelter carried a manifesto that listed “prominent pro-choice individuals in Minnesota, including many Democratic lawmakers,” sources familiar with the investigation say.

Boelter was appointed to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board in 2019, according to a news release by Gov. Tim Walz’s office that year. Hoffman served several stints on the board, including from 2018-2023, according to the Secretary of State’s website. He was also appointed to the Dakota-Scott Workforce Development Board in 2021

At that time he was serving as the director of operations for 7-11 in Cottage Grove. He also served as general manager for a major food distributor based in Shakopee and represented the convenience store chain Marathon Petroleum Corp.

An online video from two years ago appears to show Boelter preaching to a congregation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he says, “I met Jesus when I was 17 years old, and I gave my life to him.”

Detailing his faith journey, he talked about printing out his testimony and going door to door in his hometown.

“I just wanted to tell everybody about Jesus,” he said, adding that he and his wife were blessed with four daughters and a son.

In a self-made resume-style video posted to social media, Boelter spelled out his work in the funeral home industry and a food supply business projected in Africa. He said he works six days a week, splitting his time with Wulf Funeral Home and Metro First Call.

“I mainly do removals at this point,” he said. “One contract is the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office. We’re working with a lot of police officers and death investigators at the location where the decedent is found. It could be a crime scene or just a natural death. Our role is to just take that decedent from that place of death to the medical examiner’s office.”

Tim Koch, owner of Metro First Call, said Boelter worked for his company from August 2023 to February 2025, when he “voluntarily left.” Koch declined to say more other than expressing his condolences to the Hortman and Hoffman families.

Boulter shared that he lives in the Green Isle area, and has a wife, five children and two German shepherds as pets.

“Fun fact about myself,” he continued, “I’ve been in the food industry for about 30 years, and that led to an opportunity. I was invited to the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. … I was asked a couple years ago to go and see what I can do on ideas for their food supply system.”

However, he became dissatisfied with his employer and set off on his own with his wife to try to tackle the mission on their own to provide the country through farming and fishing projects. He said he turned to working with funeral homes “to help pay the bills. … The shift worked pretty good for my schedule and other things I was doing.”

Boelter was also director of security patrols at Praetorian Guard Security Services, a residential armed home security company. His wife, Jenny, was its president.

According to its website, the company offers armed security with guards wearing personal protective equipment and driving “the same make and model of vehicles that many police departments use.”

In his biography, Boelter he describes himself as Dr. Vance Boelter, who “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.”

“He brings a great security aspect forged by both many on the ground experiences combined with training by both private security firms and by people in the U.S. Military,” the website says. “He has worked for the largest U.S. oil refining company, the world’s largest food company based in Switzerland and the world’s largest convenience retailer based in Japan.”

Law enforcement officials said that when they arrived at Hortman’s home, a dark SUV with police lights was in the driveway. They said a man dressed like a police officer was at the home and opened fire on Brooklyn Park police officers.

Calls by reporters to several of Boelter’s family members resulted in hangups, with no comment.

Louis Krauss, Deena Winter, Chloe Johnson and Walker Orenstein of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.

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