Vance Luther Boelter (1968-) was an American right-wing extremist from Minneapolis who, on 14 June 2025, assassinated Minnesota Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman and shot state senator John Hoffman at their homes. He worked in private security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Minnesota, served as an evangelical minister in the West Bank and Gaza during the Second Intifada, and worked in the food service business, and he later served on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board under Governors Mark Dayton and Tim Walz. However, he was a registered Republican who voted for Donald Trump and preached against abortion rights and LGBT people in 2023. In 2025, he drew up a hit list of 70 abortion providers, pro-abortion rights advocates, and lawmakers and planned to kill them.
Early in the morning of 14 June 2025, Boelter dressed as a police officer and drove a squad car to the homes of DFL state legislators Hortman and Hoffman, gaining access to their homes and shooting both of them and their spouses. Police responded to Hortman's shooting at 3:35 AM and found Boelter's SUV in the driveway before exchanging fire with Boelter, who escaped on foot. The police issued a shelter-in-place order and mandated that officers participating in the manhunt work in pairs, advising citizens to not answer the door if a lone man in a police uniform rang. He was arrested in in a field 50 miles southwest of Minneapolis in Sibley County on 15 June 2025 after the largest manhunt in Minnesota history.