After Vance Boelter allegedly carried out one of the most shocking acts of political violence in state history, he texted his lifelong friends and roommates in Minneapolis.
“I love you guys, I made some choices,” Boelter wrote. “I’m going to be gone for a while. May be dead shortly.”
The Minnesota Star Tribune has a profile of the suspected Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter, 57, without a paywall.
Boelter is at the center of a manhunt in which the FBI has offered up to a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest for the murders and attempted murders of two Democratic Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses.
Police executed a search warrant Saturday afternoon at a Minneapolis home that one of Boelter’s roommates said he rented for the past two years. He typically slept there one or two nights a week so he could be closer to work.
Another roommate, 59-year-old David Carlson, seen in the clip above, said he had been friends with Boelter for about 50 years, dating back to fourth grade.
Interviews, online profiles, and news clips reveal Boelter’s eclectic career.
Boelter graduated from St. Cloud State University in 1996 with a degree in elective studies, focusing on international relations. He had been appointed in 2019 to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board, and was also appointed to a Dakota-Scott Workforce Development Board in 2021.
Boelter served as general manager for a major food distributor and represented the convenience store chain Marathon Petroleum Corp.
In his biography, Boelter describes himself as Dr. Vance Boelter, who “has been involved with security situations in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East, including the West Bank, Southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.”
In a video posted to his social media Boelter said he “was invited to the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. … I was asked a couple years ago to go and see what I can do on ideas for their food supply system.”
- A video from two years ago shows Boelter preaching to a congregation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he says, “I met Jesus when I was 17 years old, and I gave my life to him,” adding that he and his wife have four daughters and a son.
Boelter also claimed he worked six days in the funeral home industry, with one company confirming he was employed there from August 2023 to February 2025, when he “voluntarily left.”
Boelter was also director of security patrols at Praetorian Guard Security Services, a residential armed home security company. His wife, Jenny, was its president.
According to its website, the company offers armed security with guards wearing personal protective equipment and driving “the same make and model of vehicles that many police departments use.”
At the Hortman home, law enforcement encountered a dark SUV with police lights in the driveway and a man dressed like a police officer, who opened fire on Brooklyn Park police officers.
His roommate said Boelter had bought the squad cars because he was interested in starting a security company.
Boelter also owned a home in Green Isle, Minnesota, a small farming community about 55 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
Farmer Kevin Effertz lives about a mile from Boelter and used to snowblow and cut hay for him at his home. The neighbor told officials that Boelter and his wife bought the home about two years ago, but was gone a lot, working “in the city someplace.”
“He was always friendly… you could joke with him. We never talked about politics. Just the weather and how his farm was doing.”
Boelter told him he went to Africa on his own dime to teach people new farming techniques because so many people were starving there.
“If he was helping them people I don’t know why he would do this,” Effertz said.
