The police chief whose officers caught the man suspected of assassinating Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband has opened up about not only the arrest, but the loss of his friend.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley discussed the shooting and the subsequent manhunt with FOX 9.
"I made it really clear to staff here, like, this is an attack on our democracy," he said. "This is a horrible tragedy – Melissa, Mark, were great community members. Melissa was a friend of mine. And it does make it personal."
Bruley recalled having called Hortman directly to discuss policy changes he hoped to see that, in his estimation, would better protect the community.
"It is personal," Bruley told FOX 9. "I mean on a lot of fronts. One is, it is our lawmaker. It is our community member. And it is somebody that I knew really well that was a great representative for this police department and this city."
He recalled the night of the shooting, saying he'd received a call from one of his sergeants saying that there had been an officer-involved shooting at the Hortman's home and that the lawmaker's status was unknown.
He called it a "nightmare situation" for a police chief.
"You got an officer-involved shooting. You got a senator up in another community that has been shot. And now you have Melissa, essentially her home being invaded and we interrupt it. This is heavy, to say the least," he said.
He said his sergeant was unsure if Hortman was at home or if she'd been taken hostage.
Bruley recalled officers using a drone to explore the Hortmans’ home after they arrived to make sure that whoever had shot Hortman's husband, Mark, was not still inside. Once they realized that the shooter had fled the house, they began searching for the suspect and established a three-to-foure mile wide perimeter.
SWAT teams combed the surrounding neighborhoods and officers used drones to search from the sky.
Bruley said the ensuing manhunt for Vance Boelter, the suspected shooter, was the largest in the state's history.
Officers eventually tracked the man to Sibley County on Sunday evening after cutting off as many avenues of potential escape as possible.
"We had made his world so small, that was the last place he probably had some resources hidden that he could get," Bruley said, speculating on why Boelter was found within a mile of his home in Green Isle. "He was kind of a prepper. And I think he thought that there were resources, money, maybe go bag, guns, who knows, that he can get from that location if he could sneak back in there. That didn't surprise me. Quite honestly, I was surprised that he surrendered."
Bruley said he never would have stopped looking for Boelter.
"You can't come into Brooklyn Park, shoot a lawmaker and her husband, inflict that kind of damage and not be held accountable," he said. "Just we don't allow it and that is why this investigation would have never stopped until we captured him."
Boelter is now facing felony murder charges, among others, and could face the death penalty if convicted.
He has been accused of killing the Hortmans as well as shooting Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in a politically motivated attack.
The shooter approached both couples while disguised as a police officer and even drove a black SUV made to look like a police cruiser.
The Hoffmans' daughter called 911, and the couple was hospitalized but are recovering.
After leaving the Hoffmans' home, Boelter allegedly traveled to another elected official's home, but no one answered when he knocked.
Police that learned of the first shooting were dispatched to the home of State Senator Ann Rest in New Hope as a precaution. They encountered the shooter there but did not realize who he was at the time. The suspect left the scene due to the police presence at the home. Rest said the actions of the police department likely saved her life.
After leaving the third lawmaker's home, the shooter traveled to Brooklyn Park, where he killed the Hortmans.
That kicked off the manhunt for the shooter. The day after the attacks, police took Boelter into custody in a rural area near his home.
According to police, Boelter was armed when he was caught, but he did not resist arrest.
