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The wife of the man suspected of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses has said the family was “completely blindsided” by accusations of what authorities called “politically-motivated” attacks.
Vance Boelter, 57, has been charged over the murders of Democratic state House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the attempted murders of Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. He faces charges on both the state and federal level.
Boelter’s wife, Jenny, who has not been charged with a crime, shared her and her children’s condolences with the Hortman and Hoffman families in a statement shared by her attorney to multiple outlets.
"We are absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided. This violence does not at all align with our beliefs as a family. It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith,” Jenny Boelter said.
She said she and her family are “appalled and horrified” by the shootings and that they were “praying daily” for the victims.
Boelter’s friends and former colleagues told The Associated Press that he was a devout Christian and went to campaign rallies for President Donald Trump.
In the early morning hours of June 14, Boelter, disguised as a police officer, went to the Hoffman’s Minneapolis home and shot them repeatedly, according to federal prosecutors. The Hoffmans survived the attack.
Boelter later went to the Hortmans’ nearby home, where he fatally shot the couple multiple times, prosecutors claim.
A two-day manhunt ensued, and authorities eventually found and arrested Boelter in Green Isle, less than an hour’s drive southwest of Minneapolis.
When police searched Boelter’s car, they found five guns, a “large quantity” of ammunition and handwritten notes detailing the names of dozens of Minnesota state and federal elected officials, which included some of their home addresses, federal prosecutors said.
Jenny said she and her family have “fully cooperated” with authorities “from the moment we were first contacted” by them.
But when police first spoke with Jenny on June 14, she was initially “not forthcoming with knowledge of her husband being involved in something serious,” a state law enforcement official said in court documents, according to NBC News.
