Cities launch independent probe of police response to lawmaker shootings

Nearly five months after a string of politically motivated shootings shocked the state of Minnesota, a plan to have an outside agency review the law enforcement response to the attacks was approved Monday evening by city councils in Brooklyn Park and Champlin.

Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said the review would focus on the 43 hours from when the attacks began in the early morning of June 14 with the shootings of DFL Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and the killings of DFL Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, until the arrest of Vance Boelter near his home in Green Isle.

Bruley told the City Council that an independent agency examining what went right and wrong is “truly best practice for these types of events.” Given the continued public interest in the law enforcement response, Bruley encouraged the council to approve the measure considering the unprecedented nature of the attack and the enormous reaction by 32 law enforcement agencies to the incidents. The council approved the measure without objection.

The “After-Action Review Joint Powers Agreement” contract includes the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Minnesota State Patrol, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, and the police departments of Brooklyn Park, Champlin and New Hope. Those agencies are expected to sign the $429,500 contract in the coming days.

The cost will largely fall to Hennepin County and the state, which would pay more than $375,000 of the total.

The review will be performed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, a Virginia-based nonprofit that promotes best practices for policing.

Boelter was ultimately identified as the suspect in the shootings. He faces six federal indictments, including stalking and murder, which carries the possibility of the death penalty, along with state charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

The bulk of that data has been walled off from the public, outside of investigative details included in criminal complaints against Boelter.

Bruley said there has been a lot of “political posturing” around the shootings, and he heavily criticized media coverage of the attacks and leaks from law enforcement agencies. He said having an “objective team go through everything that occurred” is the best way to reveal what went well and areas for improvement where law enforcement “didn’t meet our expectations.”

The Champlin City Council approved the agreement with little discussion. Officials said they’ve received questions about what was known during the shootings and how law enforcement reacted and communicated. In addition, “many elected officials felt that the notification process needed improvement and have publicly expressed their views about this case,” city documents read.

The investigation could begin as early as this month and take about six months to complete, Champlin officials said.

In the 90 minutes between the shooting of the Hoffmans and killing of the Hortmans, Boelter allegedly drove to the homes of two additional DFL lawmakers and had an interaction with a New Hope police officer outside the home of Sen. Ann Rest.

Bruley has said his officers believed they had shot Boelter and he was “held up in the basement” of the house. There was blood in the entryway of the house that officers believed was Boelter’s, but that wasn’t accurate. Boelter escaped out the back door.

The federal indictment against Boelter alleges that dashcam footage from the scene shows that after Mark Hortman was shot Boelter moved into the house when a “second set of gunshots can be heard” and “several flashes appear in the entryway windows.”

In July, the Minnesota Star Tribune reviewed body camera footage that showed law enforcement waited more than an hour to physically enter the home to check on Melissa Hortman or try to apprehend Boelter. During that time, a drone was deployed to fly through the house. A source familiar with the drone footage said Hortman is shown immobile on the landing at the top of the stairs. At 4:42 a.m., she was taken out of the house and brought to an ambulance.

Last week, the Brooklyn Park Police Department announced it had completed an internal review of the actions of the first two officers on the scene. It determined the officers followed department policy and cleared them of any wrongdoing for firing on Boelter. It also said the officers, who did a welfare check on Melissa Hortman, were not aware she was a potential victim inside the home.

It remains unclear how the New Hope officer was dispatched to Rest’s home. The New Hope Police Department has declined several requests to share more information about the interaction. They provided the Star Tribune with an incident report that doesn’t mention the encounter with Boelter.

Boelter allegedly wrote a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel before being apprehended which claimed, “Cops were pulling up right next to me in their vehicles and I had an AK pistol aimed right at her head and I could have left a pile of cops dead.”

The shootings have raised questions about the law enforcement response and lack of candor about its actions.

Last month, the Star Tribune and other media outlets won a legal dispute with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office over the release of the unredacted 911 call from Hope Hoffman. Two state agencies agreed that the transcript had to be released under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

That transcript showed that within minutes of her parents being shot, Hope Hoffman relayed to law enforcement that the shooter was impersonating a police officer, wearing a mask and had intentionally targeted a state lawmaker before fleeing.