Authorities say Vance Boelter allegedly “stalked his victims like prey” before the 57-year-old — elaborately disguised as a law enforcement officer — opened fire at the homes of two lawmakers. The man suspected of fatally shooting a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and wounding another and his wife had “stalked his victims like prey” before opening fire at their homes, elaborately disguised as a law enforcement officer, prosecutors said Monday. Vance Boelter, 57, was allegedly wearing a “hyper realistic” silicone face mask, a tactical vest and body armor when he arrived at the Champlin home of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, early Saturday, according to Joseph Thompson, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota. Wielding a flashlight and a handgun, Boelter allegedly knocked on the Hoffmans’ door around 2 a.m. and shouted, “This is the police! Open the door!” (…) “Boelter planned his attack carefully,” Thompson said. “He researched his victims and their families. He used the internet and other tools to find their addresses and names, the names of the family members. He conducted surveillance of their homes and took notes of the location of their homes.” After allegedly shooting the Hoffmans, Boelter went to the homes of at least three other Minnesota state politicians with the intent to kill them, Thompson said. The next two were not home, and prosecutors declined to identify them Monday.
via nbcnews: ‘Stuff of nightmares’: Prosecutor reveals chilling details of attacks on Minnesota lawmakers
siehe auch: Wife of Minnesota politician shielded daughter from bullets, says relative. A state lawmaker’s wife who was shot eight times during an apparent assassination attempt in Minnesota, shielded her daughter from being hit, a relative has said. After surviving the hail of bullets that wounded her parents, Hope Hoffman then called local authorities who rushed to the scene and saved her parents’ lives. Her father, Democratic state senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman are recovering in hospital while the suspected gunman is in custody. “The heroic actions by the Hoffman family and their daughter Hope saved countless lives and we are grateful,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said at a press conference. This is one of the many details emerging from a Saturday shooting that killed former Speaker of the Minnesota House Melissa Hortman and her husband Marc Hortman and left the Hoffmans in hospital. The shooter targeted the two Democratic politicians in what Walz has called an “act of targeted political violence”. During the shooting Yvette Hoffman threw herself on their adult daughter Hope Hoffman to shield her from the bullets. “Early this morning, an absolute vile piece of [expletive] dressed as a cop broke into my aunt and uncle’s house and shot him 6 times and my aunt 5 times in a political act of terrorism,” Mat Ollig, a nephew of the Hoffman’s said on Facebook. “My aunt threw herself on her daughter, using her body as a shield to save her life.”