1). “Friends say Minnesota shooting suspect was deeply religious and conservative”, Jun 15, 2025, Jim Mustian & Michael Biesecker, AP, at < https://apnews.com/article/
2). “Minnesota Shooter Had Hit List of Abortion Providers and Advocates: Violence comes amid rising threats and the gutting of clinic protections”, Jun 14, 2025, Jessica Valenti, Abortion, Every Day, at < https://jessica.substack.com/
3). “How the ‘politically motivated’ shooting of Minnesota lawmakers unleashed right-wing conspiracy theories: Conspiracy theorists and senators alike are baselessly speculating about the brutal shooting spree that left two dead and two injured, Josh Marcus reports”, Jun 15, 2025, Josh Marcus, The Independent, at < https://www.the-independent.
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: Now that the police have managed to arrest the cold-blooded political assassin Vance Luther Boelter (pointed out to them while hiding in the woods, that was done by a resident of the area near his house south of Minneapolis) the truth about his personal version of far-right political beliefs has started to come out. He had several lists of people to kill and they were overwhelmingly either abortion services providers or politicians or community leaders who are supportive of Abortion Rights and Women's Reproductive Freedom in general.
Item 1)., “Friends say Minnesota ….”, includes information on statements made by Boelter such as his audio recording of a talk in which he said to:
“ …. a congregation in Africa two years ago that the U.S. was in a 'bad place' where most churches didn’t oppose abortion. ….
“Boelter, who worked as a security contractor, gave a glimpse of his beliefs on abortion during a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023. While there, Boelter served as an evangelical pastor, telling people he had first found Jesus as a teenager.
“ 'The churches are so messed up, they don’t know abortion is wrong in many churches,' he said, according to an online recording of one sermon from February 2023. Still, in three lengthy sermons reviewed by the AP, he only mentioned abortion once, focusing more on his love of God and what he saw as the moral decay in his native country.
“He appears to have hidden his more strident beliefs from his friends back home. ….
“In the hours before Saturday’s shootings, Boelter texted two roommates to tell them he loved them and that 'I’m going to be gone for a while,' according to Schroeder, who was forwarded the text and read it to the AP.
“ 'May be dead shortly, so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn’t gone this way,' Boelter wrote. 'I don’t want to say anything more and implicate you in any way because you guys don’t know anything about this. But I love you guys and I’m sorry for the trouble this has caused.' ”
Jessica Valenti shows in Item 2)., “Minnesota Shooter Had Hit List ….”, that she understands what is going on. This is shown by her prompt publishing of a memorial article about the loss of stalwart Abortion Access and Reproductive Health Care rights figures in Minnesota. She quotes from one of Boelter's rants that: “They don’t know abortion is wrong, many churches. They don’t have the gifts flowing. God gives the body gifts to keep balance. Because when the body starts moving in the wrong direction, when they’re one, and accepting the gifts, God will raise an apostle or prophet to correct their course.” (Emphasis added).
And of course the dark forces of the far-right noise machine have already begun spinning a tale of BS and Disinformation. In Item 3)., “How the ‘politically motivated’ shooting ….”, the author points out that:
“In regards to Hortman, right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich wondered aloud on X, 'Did [Minnesota Governor] Tim Walz have her executed to send a message?'
Among other prominent right-wing propagandists we find Alex Jones and Republican Senator Mike Lee from Utah (where yet another right-wing fanatic shot and killed a protester in Salt Lake City on Saturday). The article in Item 3 notes that “ …. Alex Jones, meanwhile, used a Saturday broadcast to make a variety of unfounded implications, including that Hortman was killed because she was considering switching parties and joining Republicans, and that suspect Boelter was a 'high-level' Walz appointee and “No Kings” protest organizer. (Emphasis added) ….”
(Further evidence about Boelter's motives were shown when)
“Evidence found in Boelter’s vehicle reportedly contained a hit list of prominent state Democrats and abortion rights supporters. State officials were worried about safety threats to the protests after finding papers marked “No Kings,” rather than the alleged gunman being a protest leader.”
Perhaps the most despicable disinformation efforts were those used by Senator Mike Lee of Utah who was responded by posting, “.... less than a day after saying he condemned all 'political violence' in America after a fatal shooting at a protest in his home state, (and he) appeared to mock the Minnesota tragedy, calling it the “Nightmare on Waltz Street” in an X post, an apparent misspelling of the governor’s name.
He also suggested that left-wing ideology had caused the shooting. “Marxism is a deadly mental illness,” he wrote. “This is what happens,” he wrote in a caption for a photograph of the alleged Minnesota shooter, “When Marxists don’t get their way.”
“Former White House adviser Elon Musk …. again waded into the fray.
“ 'The far left is murderously violent,' he wrote on X the same day he said he was working to reprogram X’s AI program Grok because it was spreading 'leftist indoctrination.' ”
The most violent factions of the U.S. Forced-Pregnancy / Forced-Birth movement killed 17 people over their 40+ terror campaign against Abortion Rights (while thousands of American women died when they could not obtain safe competent Abortion services). The Abortion Abolitionists are gaining power and want to begin executing women or imposing 40 and 50 imprisonment sentences of them, after appropriate show trials to justify such a punishment. Killing and wounding two politicians who advocated for Abortion Rights is typical and a big achievement for them. Certainly the state authorities need to take care to sentence Boelter, after an appropriate trial, in such a way that he cannot join the various other violent Forced-Pregnancy / Forced-Birth operatives that Trump has pardoned.
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Friends say Minnesota shooting suspect was deeply religious and conservative
The man suspected of killing a Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another has been taken into custody, bringing an end to a massive, nearly two-day search that put the entire state on edge. Vance Boelter was arrested Sunday evening.
A law enforcement officer trains his rifle towards a house as the officers search for shooting suspect, Vance Boelter, Sunday, June 15, 2025, in Belle Plaine, Minn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Members of law enforcement agencies walk through a field near a vehicle suspected to belong to shooting suspect, Vance Boelter, Sunday, June 15, 2025, in Belle Plaine, Minn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
This photo provided by the FBI on Saturday, June 14, 2025, shows Vance L. Boelter in June 2022. (FBI via AP)
This image provided by the FBI on Saturday, June 14, 2025, shows part of a poster with photos of Vance L. Boelter. (FBI via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of assassinating the top Democrat in the Minnesota House held deeply religious and politically conservative views, telling a congregation in Africa two years ago that the U.S. was in a “bad place” where most churches didn’t oppose abortion.
Vance Luther Boelter, 57, was captured late Sunday following a two-day manhunt authorities described as the largest in the state’s history. Boelter is accused of impersonating a police officer and gunning down former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home outside Minneapolis. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz described the shooting as “a politically motivated assassination.”
Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were shot earlier by the same gunman at their home nearby but survived.
Friends and former colleagues interviewed by AP described Boelter as a devout Christian who attended an evangelical church and went to campaign rallies for President Donald Trump. Records show Boelter registered to vote as a Republican while living in Oklahoma in 2004 before moving to Minnesota where voters don’t list party affiliation.
Near the scene at Hortman’s home, authorities say they found an SUV made to look like those used by law enforcement. Inside they found fliers for a local anti-Trump “No Kings” rally scheduled for Saturday and a notebook with names of other lawmakers. The list also included the names of abortion rights advocates and health care officials, according to two law enforcement officials who could not discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Suspect not believed to have made any public threats before attacks, official says
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said at a briefing on Sunday that Boelter is not believed to have made any public threats before the attacks. Evans asked the public not to speculate on a motivation for the attacks. “We often want easy answers for complex problems,” he told reporters. “Those answers will come as we complete the full picture of our investigation.”
Friends told the AP that they knew Boelter was religious and conservative, but that he didn’t talk about politics often and didn’t seem extreme.
“He was right-leaning politically but never fanatical, from what I saw, just strong beliefs,” said Paul Schroeder, who has known Boelter for years.
A glimpse of suspect’s beliefs on abortion during a trip to Africa
Boelter, who worked as a security contractor, gave a glimpse of his beliefs on abortion during a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023. While there, Boelter served as an evangelical pastor, telling people he had first found Jesus as a teenager.
“The churches are so messed up, they don’t know abortion is wrong in many churches,” he said, according to an online recording of one sermon from February 2023. Still, in three lengthy sermons reviewed by the AP, he only mentioned abortion once, focusing more on his love of God and what he saw as the moral decay in his native country.
He appears to have hidden his more strident beliefs from his friends back home.
“He never talked to me about abortion,” Schroeder said. “It seemed to be just that he was a conservative Republican who naturally followed Trump.”
A married father with five children, Boelter and his wife own a sprawling 3,800-square-foot house on a large rural lot about an hour from downtown Minneapolis that the couple bought in 2023 for more than a half-million dollars.
Seeking to reinvent himself
He worked for decades in managerial roles for food and beverage manufacturers before seeking to reinvent himself in middle age, according to resumes and a video he posted online.
After getting an undergraduate degree in international relations in his 20s, Boelter went back to school and earned a master’s degree and then a doctorate in leadership studies in 2016 from Cardinal Stritch University, a private Catholic college in Wisconsin that has since shut down. While living in Wisconsin, records show Boelter and his wife Jenny founded a nonprofit corporation called Revoformation Ministries, listing themselves as the president and secretary.
After moving to Minnesota about a decade ago, Boelter volunteered for a position on a state workforce development board, first appointed by then-Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, in 2016, and later by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. He served through 2023.
In that position, he may have crossed paths with one of his alleged victims. Hoffman served on the same board, though authorities said it was not immediately clear how much the two men may have interacted.
Launching a security firm
Records show Boelter and his wife started a security firm in 2018. A website for Praetorian Guard Security Services lists Boelter’s wife as the president and CEO while he is listed as the director of security patrols. The company’s homepage says it provides armed security for property and events and features a photo of an SUV painted in a two-tone black and silver pattern similar to a police vehicle, with a light bar across the roof and “Praetorian” painted across the doors. Another photo shows a man in black tactical gear with a military-style helmet and a ballistic vest with the company’s name across the front.
In an online resume, Boelter also billed himself as a security contractor who worked oversees in the Middle East and Africa. On his trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, he told Chris Fuller, a friend, that he had founded several companies focused on farming and fishing on the Congo River, as well as in transportation and tractor sales.
“It has been a very fun and rewarding experience and I only wished I had done something like this 10 years ago,” he wrote in a message shared with the AP.
But once he returned home in 2023, there were signs that Boelter was struggling financially. That August, he began working for a transport service for a funeral home, mostly picking up bodies of those who had died in assisted living facilities — a job he described as he needed to do to pay bills. Tim Koch, the owner of Metro First Call, said Boelter “voluntarily left” that position about four months ago.
“This is devastating news for all involved,” Koch said, declining to elaborate on the reasons for Boelter’s departure, citing the ongoing law enforcement investigation.
Boelter had also started spending some nights away from his family, renting a room in a modest house in northern Minneapolis shared by friends. Heavily armed police executed a search warrant on the home Saturday.
‘I’m going to be gone for awhile’
In the hours before Saturday’s shootings, Boelter texted two roommates to tell them he loved them and that “I’m going to be gone for a while,” according to Schroeder, who was forwarded the text and read it to the AP.
“May be dead shortly, so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn’t gone this way,” Boelter wrote. “I don’t want to say anything more and implicate you in any way because you guys don’t know anything about this. But I love you guys and I’m sorry for the trouble this has caused.”
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Minnesota Shooter Had Hit List of Abortion Providers and Advocates
The man who shot four people in Minnesota—killing two, including Rep. Melissa Hortman—appears to have been motivated by anti-abortion views.
CNN reports that shooter Vance Luther Boelter had a “hit list” in his car with over 70 names, including abortion providers, abortion rights activists, and pro-choice politicians in Minnesota and other states. Rep. Kelly Morrison told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the list included “abortion providers and organizations that provide reproductive health care.”
Rep. Hortman, who was killed alongside her husband, Mark, was known for her strong support of reproductive rights. As the Minnesota Democratic House Leader, she played a key role in codifying abortion protections in the state. Sen. John Hoffman—who was shot along with his wife, Yvette—is also pro-choice.
Information about Boelter is still coming out—we don’t know what was written in his “manifesto,” and we don’t have a full picture of his motivations. But the picture painted so far is a telling one: The 57-year-old worked for a private security firm, and his best friend described him to the New York Times as a devout Christian who strongly opposed abortion. Boelter also gave several sermons at an evangelical church in Congo, including one where he blasted American churches for not taking a harder stance against abortion:
“They don’t know abortion is wrong, many churches. They don’t have the gifts flowing. God gives the body gifts to keep balance. Because when the body starts moving in the wrong direction, when they’re one, and accepting the gifts, God will raise an apostle or prophet to correct their course.”
Shortly after, he added, “God is going to raise up apostles and prophets in America to correct his church.”
WIRED reports that Boelter’s Facebook profile “liked” several evangelical missionary groups—as well as the Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal powerhouse that helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL), the state’s largest anti-abortion organization, put out a statement calling the shooting “completely antithetical to the mission of MCCL and the pro-life movement.”
But it’s impossible to separate today’s violence from the anti-abortion movement and Republican leaders. Since Donald Trump took office, the White House and GOP have systematically stripped providers and clinics of federal protections—while fueling dangerous anti-abortion myths and misinformation.
One of Trump’s first acts in January was to pardon two dozen violent extremists convicted of violating the FACE Act, the federal law prohibiting violence against abortion clinics. A day later, Vice President JD Vance told a crowd of anti-abortion activists at the March for Life that anyone who harasses patients or attacks clinics will “never have the government go after them ever again.”
That same day, Trump’s Department of Justice issued a memo announcing they wouldn’t enforce the FACE Act unless there were “extraordinary circumstances...such as death.” At the same time, Republican lawmakers have been pushing to repeal the FACE Act—advancing legislation just this week that would strip away those protections entirely. And in the background, the most powerful conservative legal groups in the country are working to overturn Hill v. Colorado—the Supreme Court ruling that established abortion clinic buffer zones—claiming anti-choice activists have a First Amendment right to harass patients and providers up close and personal.
In other words: Republicans have been giving anti-abortion extremists the green light, making clear that the federal government is on their side. It’s no wonder that the National Abortion Federation says clinics are seeing an increase in harassment and threats.
It’s also worth remembering that Minnesota—one of the most pro-choice states in the country—was a specific target of inflammatory anti-abortion rhetoric in the run-up to the 2024 election. Anti-choice organizations, conservative media, and Republican candidates all took coordinated aim at then-vice presidential candidate Tim Walz for supporting the PRO Act, Minnesota’s most recent pro-choice law.
In September 2024, Abortion, Every Day uncovered a memo in which Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser instructed GOP candidates and lawmakers to say that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz supported “leaving [babies] to die.” She also urged them to claim that Walz allowed for the murder of children—and that Planned Parenthood doctors in Minnesota would “break the baby’s neck” if an abortion was unsuccessful.
Again, we don’t have all the details of Boelter’s motive yet—but the national rhetoric here is vital context.
While Boelter is still at large, the National Abortion Federation is working to provide extra security to their members. Chief Program Officer Melissa Fowler says, “NAF will do everything within our power to ensure abortion providers have the resources, trainings, and security support so that they can continue to provide quality, evidence-based abortion care to their communities.”
Abortion, Every Day will continue to bring updates as we learn more. In the meantime, my heart is with everyone in Minnesota—especially the family and friends of those impacted. I’m so very sorry.
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How ‘politically motivated’ shooting of lawmakers unleashed conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theorists and senators alike are baselessly speculating about the brutal shooting spree that left two dead and two injured, Josh Marcus reports
The first, most pressing one, is the arrest of Vance L. Boelter, the man suspected of impersonating a police officer and shooting two state lawmakers and their spouses in a “politically motivated” attack on Saturday.
The other is a race to get in front of feverish conspiracy theories about the incident that are spreading across right-wing corners of the internet.
It didn’t take long for the conjecture to begin after the fatal shootings of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, as well as the non-fatal shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, hit the headlines.
In regards to Hortman, right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich wondered aloud on X, “Did [Minnesota Governor] Tim Walz have her executed to send a message?”
Fellow fabulist Alex Jones, meanwhile, used a Saturday broadcast to make a variety of unfounded implications, including that Hortman was killed because she was considering switching parties and joining Republicans, and that suspect Boelter was a “high-level” Walz appointee and “No Kings” protest organizer.
Jones capped off the a misinformation session by reading from a social media post from a seemingly random, pseudonymous account that called the shooting a “professional hit.”
Such claims reached thousands of people, even as they defied common sense and all evidence that eventually became available about the shootings.
Boelter was not a high-level ally of the governor, but rather a re-upped appointee from a previous administration on an obscure workforce board with about 60 members.
Hortman was not planning on switching parties, though she did help broker a controversial compromise with Republicans this year to scale back undocumented immigrants’ access to a state health program in order to keep the government open.
Further eroding the narrative of the shooting as a Democratic plot against Hortman, Hoffman, the other targeted lawmaker, voted on the opposite side of the immigration issue.
Evidence found in Boelter’s vehicle reportedly contained a hit list of prominent state Democrats and abortion rights supporters. State officials were worried about safety threats to the protests after finding papers marked “No Kings,” rather than the alleged gunman being a protest leader.
The man’s roommate also described him as a Trump voter.
Such reactions from a right-wing media ecosystem are no longer a surprise, but the Minnesota crisis revealed the depths to which even mainstream, Republican-aligned U.S. politicians and corporate figures were willing to encourage the notion of a violent left-wing plot well before all the facts had come out.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, less than a day after saying he condemned all “political violence” in America after a fatal shooting at a protest in his home state, appeared to mock the Minnesota tragedy, calling it the “Nightmare on Waltz Street” in an X post, an apparent misspelling of the governor’s name.
He also suggested that left-wing ideology had caused the shooting. “Marxism is a deadly mental illness,” he wrote. “This is what happens,” he wrote in a caption for a photograph of the alleged Minnesota shooter, “When Marxists don’t get their way.”
Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio took a similar tack, writing on X: “The degree to which the extreme left has become radical, violent, and intolerant is both stunning and terrifying.”
Former White House adviser Elon Musk — who amplified conspiracy theories surrounding the 2022 hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi — again waded into the fray.
“The far left is murderously violent,” he wrote on X the same day he said he was working to reprogram X’s AI program Grok because it was spreading “leftist indoctrination.”
Dan Bongino, a former right-wing broadcaster who joined the numerous voices on the right suggesting something about the official narrative of the Pelosi hammer attack didn’t add up, is now the deputy director of the FBI, which is assisting in the Minnesota manhunt.
“The FBI is fully engaged on the ground in Minnesota and is working in collaboration with our local and state partners,” he said Saturday.
Local officials and media figures called on outside observers to stop speculating about the shooting, given the intense grief surrounding the attack and the many unanswered questions about how a man was able to disguise himself as a police office, shoot four people, and escape.
“In a different, saner world, they would be humiliated and slink away,” wroteJ. Patrick Coolican, editor of the Minnesota Reformer. “But the smart money is that during the next moment of national crisis and mourning, they will again lie for profit.”
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, called on those engaging in such speculation to remember that “we have families that continue to grieve.”
“While everybody wants an easy answer, I would encourage everybody online and in our communities to not speculate on what occurred and what the motivation was for this,” he said during a press conference on Sunday.
“We often want easy answers for complex problems,” he said. “And this is a complex situation that our investigators are going to need time to sift through the information and evidence, and those answers will come as we complete a full picture of our investigation.”
“We must truly focus on what matters beneath all of our differences — political, personal or otherwise,” Mayor Ryan Sabas of Champlin, Minnesota, told reporters at the briefing. “We are all human beings, and every human life has a value.”
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