Vance Luther Boelter could face death penalty: ‘His crimes are the stuff of nightmares’

The alleged killer of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband could receive the maximum penalty. That's according to federal charges unveiled in recent hours, which will be added to state charges.

The federal penalty for Vance Luther Boelter could range from two decades behind bars to death, although District Attorney Joseph Thompson cautioned that it was "too early" to say whether he would seek capital punishment.

Thompson detailed the charges: a total of six, two for murder, two for stalking and two for firearm offenses, the latter for shooting state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife.

"His crimes are the stuff of nightmares," the prosecutor said at a news conference hours before Boelter appeared in court for the first time. The suspect "stalked his victims like prey," Thompson maintained, and that he "shot them in cold blood."

He also revealed for the first time that Boelter would have gone to the homes of four politicians, with the fortune that one was empty and in another he encountered a policewoman even before getting out of his car, so he decided to abandon the target.

To perpetrate the crimes he would have prepared himself by investigating his victims by watching their homes and looking for them on the internet, arming himself and, to look like a policeman, camouflaging his car and disguising himself - even with a hyper-realistic silicone mask. He would have targeted, in addition, a list with "more than 45 Minnesota state and federal elected officials." It is believed that possible victims.

State officials

The Hennepin County prosecutor, Mary Moriarty, explained at a news conference that her office would seek to file first-degree murder charges. The maximum punishment would be life in prison without parole, as the state prohibits the death penalty.

While Boelter remained at large, in what authorities describe as the longest search and seizure in state history, the county prosecutor's office had filed a complaint with lighter charges, which they defended as necessary initially to "get the warrant out."

That court document, disseminated by local media The Minnesota Star Tribune, revealed that both the suspect's arrival and departure from the Hoffman home was captured by security cameras, and that, "The defendant knocked on the door and announced himself as a police officer before entering the house and shooting victims."

In addition, it claims that, at the other crime scene, police officers saw "through the open door of the home" how he shot at lawmaker Hortman's husband. "Police exchanged gunfire with the defendant, who fled inside the residence before escaping the area," it also details how upon entering the house, they found the deceased couple.

According to him, "a person familiar" with Boelter identified him as the same person who appeared on the security cameras. When they searched a vehicle registered in his name, they found three AK-47 assault rifles and a pistol, as well as a list with names and addresses of other public officials. Although the document does not go into detail, experts maintain that it could be a list of other possible victims.

Access the full criminal complaint, picked up by The Minnesota Star Tribune: