A timeline of the crime and manhunt

The terror began with a predawn knock at a lawmaker’s door and gunshots from a man impersonating a police officer. It escalated with a police sergeant’s hunch to check another lawmaker’s home nearby, where police discovered two bodies and exchanged gunfire with a suspect who eventually fled through the back door.

And it dragged on for nearly two days, with suspect Vance Boelter evading a massive law enforcement dragnet that included suburban streets, urban neighborhoods, rural fields and woods.

The pursuit of Boelter ended on Sunday in rural Sibley County just after dusk, when law enforcement officials took Boelter into custody.

“One man’s unthinkable actions have altered the state of Minnesota,” Gov. Tim Walz said at a news briefing later Sunday night.

By then, shockwaves had reverberated through the state, beginning with the news Saturday morning that Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, seriously wounded.

Hours before the tragedy unfolded, Hortman and Hoffman spent Friday night among colleagues at their party’s annual Humphrey-Mondale Dinner, where Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker spoke.

Boelter spent that same night at the north Minneapolis home of a childhood friend, who told the Minnesota Star Tribune that Boelter was renting a room there while working in the metro area.

This account is based on interviews, statements and documents provided by law enforcement. Boelter has not spoken publicly and, as of this writing, it was not clear if he had been assigned a lawyer.

A man wearing a mask, blue shirt, and police-style tactical vest knocked on the front door of the Hoffman’s split-level home in Champlin and shouted repeatedly: “This is the police. Open the door.”

It’s unclear whether Hoffman, his wife, or both answered the door. But when the door opened, the man who authorities allege was Boelter shined a flashlight in their faces and told them there had been a shooting reported inside the home. The man asked whether the Hoffmans had any guns, according to federal charges. Sen. Hoffman responded that they had firearms but they were locked away.

Yvette Hoffman told authorities she soon realized that the man was wearing a mask. When the Hoffmans told him he wasn’t a real police officer, Boelter responded by saying something like “this is a robbery,” federal charges say.

Yvette Hoffman told investigators that when her husband tried to push Boelter back through the front door, Boelter shot him repeatedly. When Yvette Hoffman then shut the door, he continued shooting through it, hitting her.

Over the police scanner, an official asked for two rooms at Mercy Hospital, about six miles away.

“One female victim,” an official radioed, talking about Yvette Hoffman. “3 GSWs [gunshot wounds]. Two to abdomen. One to arm.”

“Advise Mercy, we have an older male, multiple gunshot wounds. … Two to the chest, one to the abdomen … left elbow. He’s definitely got bleeding going on his stomach as well," the audio obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune continued.

After fleeing the Hoffmans’ home, Boelter went to the house of a state representative in Maple Grove, prosecutors allege.

Still wearing the black tactical vest and silicone mask, Boelter rang the doorbell at 2:24 a.m. and again yelled repeatedly: “This is the police. Open the door. This is the police. We have a warrant.”

He then went on to his next target, a state senator in New Hope, charges allege. DFL Sen. Ann Rest said Monday it was her home.

Police in that suburban city had learned of the shooting at Hoffman’s home, and dispatched an officer to conduct a safety check.

Around 2:36 a.m., a New Hope officer arrived at Rest’s house and saw a black SUV parked down the block. The officer thought the man was another cop who had been sent to protect the senator.

But when the New Hope officer pulled up next to Boelter, rolled down her window and tried to speak with him, he didn’t say anything. He “just sat there, and stared straight ahead,” Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joseph Thompson later described. Thompson said he believes Boelter was wearing the mask at the time.

The New Hope officer continued on to Rest’s home and, seeing no signs of distress, waited there until other law enforcement joined. By the time they did, the SUV, which police believe was driven by Boelter, had left the area.

They arrived at Hortman’s house about 3:35 a.m., where Boelter had parked his SUV in the driveway with emergency lights flashing “as if he was a police officer,” Thompson said. Boelter approached the house armed and carrying a flashlight, Thompson said.

The two Brooklyn Park officers arrived before Boelter entered the Hortman household, Thompson said, and saw him standing “several feet from the door.”

When Boelter saw the officers get out of the car, he drew his gun and started firing, Thompson said. The officers fired at Boelter, but he rushed into the house through the front door.

“When he entered, he murdered Rep. Hortman and her husband Mark,” Thompson said.

A medic on the scanner said, “The shooter is still in the house,” with sirens in the background. “They believe barricaded with the firearm.”

They then made “limited” entry into the home, where they believed the shooter was hiding, and dragged Mark Hortman outside to administer aid. He was pronounced dead shortly after.

Officers, including SWAT officials, surrounded the home and flew a drone inside, where they found a second victim dead: Melissa Hortman.

Officials believe Boelter escaped through the back of the house.

In the SUV, officials found several notebooks full of hand-written notes and lists of more than 45 Democratic state and federal officials, including Rep. Hortman, whose home address was written next to her name.

Targets on the lists included “prominent pro-choice individuals in Minnesota,” people familiar with the investigation told the Star Tribune. Papers with “NO KINGS” written on them were also found in the vehicle, an apparent reference to the nationwide demonstrations planned for Saturday to counter President Donald Trump’s military parade.

In the same general area, law enforcement also found a flashlight, the body armor vest, and the silicone mask that appeared to be the one Boelter had been wearing.

Champlin Mayor Ryan Sabas said the Brooklyn Park sergeant’s precautionary call “likely stopped this individual from going on and committing other crimes.”

“It was a lucky call, and we are saddened that it wasn’t 10 minutes earlier,” Sabas said.

By Saturday morning, thousands of Brooklyn Park residents were under a stay-at-home order and Americans woke up to news of a political assassination, the suspected gunman still at large.

Police tracked Boelter family cell phones and stopped his wife, Jenny, and three relatives at a Casey’s convenience store just off Hwy. 169 in Onamia in central Minnesota.

Another message read: “Words are not gonna explain how sorry I am for this situation ... there’s gonna be some people coming to the house armed and trigger-happy and I don’t want you guys around.”

Inside Jenny Boelter’s car, officers found two handguns, approximately $10,000 in cash and passports for her and her children.

A Casey’s store employee told the Star Tribune that she saw the vehicles’ occupants — two young women, an older woman and a young man — taken from the scene by Hennepin County law enforcement.

Police had also tracked Boelter’s phone to a residence where he sometimes stayed on Fremont Avenue in north Minneapolis.

Video footage showed that Boelter had returned there after the murders, but by 7 a.m. Boelter was at a north Minneapolis bus stop with two duffel bags, a witness told police.

Throughout the afternoon, “No Kings Day” demonstrations continued around Minnesota, despite a few cancellations and warnings from Walz and other officials that protesters should stay home.

Around 1:15 p.m., police loaded an unmarked black SUV from the Hortman home onto a tow truck and drove it away. It had a white license plate sign that said simply “POLICE.” Blue and red lights inside of the squad car were still flashing.

Less than two hours later, authorities first publicly named 57-year-old Boelter as a suspect. They also asked the public for help finding him and distributed a picture of Boelter wearing a light-colored cowboy hat.

The Brooklyn Park police chief said the manhunt involved “hundreds and hundreds of police officers.” The officers worked in pairs, and officials said residents should not respond to any individual officer approaching them. The FBI offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to Boelter’s arrest and conviction.

Early Sunday morning, someone spotted a person riding an e-bike two miles away from Boelter’s home in Green Isle, in the far southwest stretches of the Twin Cities metro. Soon, officers discovered the Buick abandoned nearby.

Residents near Boelter’s home received emergency alerts in the late morning disclosing that officials found an unoccupied vehicle belonging to the suspect. “Suspect not located. Keep your doors locked and vehicles secured,” the alert read.

More than 20 officers and police dogs searched a farm field and woods near the spot where the sedan was found.

Bruley said an “alert police officer” believed he saw someone running into the woods. Law enforcement then drew up a huge perimeter around the area, deploying SWAT teams and other law enforcement to the site.

There were other potential sightings, too. Around 7 p.m., a local resident reported their trail camera had captured an image “consistent with Boelter,” said Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.

Then, shortly before 8 p.m., Wendy Thomas was leaving a friend’s house when she saw a man crawling in the grass. “‘He’s right there!’” Thomas said she told officers.

There was not a prolonged negotiation, and Boelter eventually obeyed commands to give himself up, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said Monday.

“Because of the extremely good coordination and what [law enforcement] were doing, I believe [Boelter] was certainly in a position where he just had to give up because he knew he was surrounded by who was there,” Evans told reporters.

Boelter was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

Federal prosecutors announced six charges, including stalking and murder for the killing of Hortman and her husband, Mark.