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Minnesota’s Homegrown Terrorist Remains on the Loose
How one Trump-fueled Republican became a murderer
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A man dressed as law enforcement - with a car tricked out to look like a police cruiser - showed up at Democratic lawmakers’ homes in Minnesota early yesterday, murdered a former Speaker of the House and her husband, injured two others, and is still on the loose. Time to log in with Andra Berghoff:
What happened?
Early yesterday morning, Vance Boetler - a registered Republican since 2004 - posed as a police officer and arrived at the home of State Senator John Hoffman in a fake squad car with police lights. He shot both Hoffman and his wife leaving them both in critical condition. Boetler then drove to the home of former State House Speaker Melissa Hortman, where he shot her, her husband, and their dog. Only the dog survived.
Police arrived during the second attack and exchanged gunfire with Boetler, but he managed to flee. He is currently still at large, and the neighborhood is on lockdown.
Boetler previously served on Governor Tim Walz’s Workforce Development Board, though bipartisan appointments to advisory boards like that are standard and not indicative of political loyalty or extremism. What did indicate his political leanings though was a manifesto in Boetler’s vehicle that named multiple Democratic leaders along with several abortion providers as targets. There were also stacks of handwritten flyers that said simply “No Kings.”
Trump called the attack “horrific” and claimed such violence “won’t be tolerated” - a bare-minimum, deeply ironic statement from the man who’s spent both of his administrations fueling exactly this kind of hate.
In the wake of the attack, the state advised organizers to cancel all No Kings Day protests, but Minnesotans didn’t back down. People self-organized, and the protests went ahead with a huge turnout according to creator, Amanda Tietz:
Why it matters
This was a politically motivated assassination attempt. It doesn’t get more direct than showing up at officials’ homes in disguise with a hit list. And yet we’re still waiting for this act of violence to be labeled by the media as "domestic terrorism" or “right-wing extremism.” If the political roles were reversed, it would already be the frontpage headline
This is also about the growing normalization of political violence. Boetler didn’t just harbor extremist ideas, he acted on them. And he did so in a state that has seen its fair share of political tension and protest in recent years. That protesters still came out despite the violence is a powerful act of resistance, but it shouldn’t have to be brave to exercise your First Amendment right in your own city.
Bottom line
A far-right extremist impersonated police and executed a sitting lawmaker and her family. He had a manifesto, a target list of Democrats, and is still on the loose. Let’s stop pretending this is anything but what it is: terrorism, driven by a dangerous ideology, in an environment where too many are still denying that the sitting US president is anything other than a total dictator.
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