Minnesota Woman Shares How She Spotted Suspected Shooter Hiding in Grass: ‘I Was Shaking, Freaking Out’
Screenshot via Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office.
A local Minnesota woman shared with reporters what she witnessed when she saw the man accused of several politically targeted shootings hiding in the grass and flagged down nearby police officers, saying she was “shaking” and “freaking out” when she realized he might be the suspect.
Vance Boelter, 57, was arrested late Sunday evening after an extensive manhunt for allegedly shooting two Democratic Minnesota legislators and their spouses, killing former Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman and seriously wounding State Rep. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman. The shootings have been described by authorities as “politically motivated” and police said that Boelter had created a handwritten “hit list” of more than 70 targets, including abortion providers and numerous other Democrats in the state legislature and Congress.
NBC News correspondent Maggie Vespa reported on local Green Isle resident Wendy Thomas’ description of discovering Boelter near her friend’s home and flagging down nearby officers.
Thomas told Vespa she had stopped by her friend’s home and was backing down the driveway when she thought she saw a person in the grass. She was on the phone with her father at the time, and he was urging her to get home quickly with Boelter still on the loose.
“I didn’t think he was in the area at all. I thought he was long gone,” said Thomas, adding that she initially thought the person in the grass was a police officer:
“I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re clearing properties.’ That’s what I figured it was,” she said. “And the more my brain registered, I’m like, ‘Dad, there’s only one person. There’s no vehicle.’ And then I started freaking out.”
Thomas said she watched the person walk and then duck down in the grass.
“I was shaking, freaking out,” she recalled.
She flagged down officers who were opening up the roads.
“You could see squatting in the culvert,” she said. “And I started pointing, there he is, there he is.”
According to Minneapolis’ local NBC affiliate KARE 11, Boelter will be facing both federal and state charges. On Monday, Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson announced that Boelter was being charged in federal court with two counts of stalking regarding the two legislators, two counts of murder with a firearm, and two additional counts of firearm offenses related to the shootings of the Hoffmans, who are recovering in a hospital and expected to survive. These charges may be amended or new ones added as prosecutors present the case to a grand jury, said Thompson, and the Department of Justice had not yet decided if it would seek the death penalty.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty similarly told reporters that Boelter may face additional charges. So far, Moriarty’s office had originally filed second-degree murder and attempted murder charges against him Monday morning, and she said they intend to elevate the murder charges to first-degree, which carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole under Minnesota law if he is convicted. First-degree murder charges at the state level also require an indictment by a county grand jury.
