The story behind the Minnesota shootings gets stranger and stranger.
Partly for my own benefit, here are the four victims: State representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman were killed. State senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman were shot but survived. I believe the Hoffmans are still alive, but I haven’t heard how serious their injuries are.
At 2 a.m. yesterday police went to the Hoffman house in Champlin, MN, to check on a report of shooting. The shooter had already left. The Hoffmans were found and taken to a hospital. At some point the Champlin police called the PD in nearby Brooklyn Park, MN, and suggested they check on the Hortmans. The Brooklyn Park police arrived at the Hortman house at 3:35 a.m. The shooter was still there. He came out the front door and exchanged gunfire with the cops. Then he re-entered the house and fled out the back door. That’s when the cops got hold of his car, which had been detailed to look like a police car. And that’s when they found the “hit list” with several names and a note about No Kings. The shooter was wearing “a blue shirt with a black tactical vest underneath and blue pants,” according to this report.
Multiple news outlets, including CNN, ABC, and the Minnesota Star Tribune, have reported that the alleged shooter—57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter, who remains at large—left a list of names behind in his car that included abortion providers and advocates and figures with ties to Planned Parenthood, along with Democratic politicians. Rep. Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.), told the Star Tribune that she was on the shooter’s list and that local law enforcement told her to shelter in place on Saturday; a spokesperson for Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) told the New York Times the senator was also on the list.
Much is still unknown about the suspect’s motivations. A longtime friend of Boelter told CNN on Saturday that the alleged shooter was a staunch opponent of abortion rights. On Meet the Press Sunday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said, “There clearly was some through line with abortion because of the groups that were on the list and other things that I’ve heard were in this manifesto.”
I don’t believe the list itself has been made public, but anyone one the list has been notified. The connection to abortion squares with what Wired reported yesterday. Rep. Hortman in particular had worked to protect access to abortion in Minnesota.
The deeper one digs into Vance Boelter, the weirder he seems. Initially it was reported he owns some sort of security company, but subsequent reporting has suggested the company is a fantasy. NPR:
Authorities said Boelter disguised himself as a law enforcement officer during the attack and news reports have focused on his apparent work as a security professional. But NPR’s review of Boelter’s online records and employment history found many of those claims about his professional life that appear untrue.
In social media posts and websites, Boelter said he had extensive experience as a security professional with “training by both private security firms and by people in the U.S. Military.”
NPR found little evidence to support Boelter’s account. He appears to have worked most of his career in the food service industry and one long-time friend described parts of Boelter’s narrative about his life as “fantasy.” …
… On the website for a company called Praetorian Guard Security Services, LLC, Boelter described himself as part of the “leadership team.”
NPR found no record of the firm having clients or providing any services. A call to the company’s phone number connected to what appears to be a private phone line, not a business. The address listed in incorporation papers appeared to be that of a law firm specializing in divorce litigation.
Boelter himself appears to have no history working in law enforcement, the military or private security.
The New York Times interviewed a close friend of Boelter named David Carlson. Boelter rents a room in Carlson’s house and stays there several days a week, even though Boelter is married and, one assumes, has a home somewhere else. Carlson said Boelter has been working at a funeral home of late. Carlson also said Boelter “owned guns and had voted for President Trump last year.” Further,
Mr. Carlson said Mr. Boelter is a Christian who strongly opposed abortion. He had never mentioned either of the lawmakers who were shot, Mr. Carlson said, and had generally avoided talking about politics. He said Mr. Boelter had been experiencing financial and mental health challenges.
And this, from the same NY Times story, is just bizarre.
The man suspected of shooting two Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota early on Saturday had served on a state board with one of the victims, records show.
The suspect identified by the authorities, Vance Boelter, 57, was appointed several times by Minnesota governors to the Workforce Development Board, where he served with State Senator John A. Hoffman, who was shot and survived. …
… Mr. Boelter was appointed to the board in 2016 by Mark Dayton, a Democrat who was then the governor. More recently, he was appointed by Gov. Tim Walz, also a Democrat. The board has 41 members who are appointed by the governor, and its goal is to improve business development in the state.
Boelter must have persuaded somebody that he was a real business owner and not a fantasy business owner, and nobody bothered to check him out.
That’s where we are so far. But what I really want to talk about is how this is being reported in right-wing media. Yesterday, to see how the story was being twisted, I went to a reliable source for crazy — Gateway Pundit, to which I do not link. GP already was reporting that Gov. Walz had appointed Boelter to a state board, insinuating that the Governor was behind the shooting. I’ve since read that right-wing influencers are spreading the story that Gov. Walz paid Boelter to do the shootings.
Further, in the wingnut-o-sphere Boelter is being described as a “left-leaning” close associate of Walz, and that Boelter’s wife worked for Walz some time in the past. The Minnesota Star-Tribune has debunked these claims. There’s no evidence Boelter has ever met Gov. Walz, and the Jenny Boelter who worked for Walz back in 2010 or so was a different person, says the Star-Tribune. I take it the board Boelter was appointed to (originally by a previous governor) meets irregularly and doesn’t do a whole lot.
Fox News yesterday suggested another motivation — the shooter must be pro-illegal immigrant.
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Melissa Hortman, who was fatally shot on Saturday with the suspect still at large, made headlines earlier this week for being the only Democratic vote in the state House to vote to repeal taxpayer-funded healthcare coverage for adult illegal immigrants.
“I know that people will be hurt by that vote and I’m – we worked very hard to try and get a budget deal that wouldn’t include that provision,” she said following the vote that she said was done in order to move the budget forward in a split legislature, according to Kttc. Republicans hold the House 67-66, and the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party holds the Senate 34-33.
It’s not clear to me what Hortman was voting against, though. The story suggests she wanted the provision removed from the budget bill so that the budget bill could pass the House and be forwarded to the Senate. She’ wasn’t actually against denying health care to anybody. And it doesn’t explain why the Hoffmans were targeted. Sen. Hoffman backed legislation that extended the state’s health-care program to undocumented immigrants, according to the Associated Press.
But if you run into wingnuts who fervently believe Vance Boelter is a lefty, now you know why.