(RNS) — Vance Boelter, the man being sought in the killing of a Minnesota state legislator and her husband and the shooting of a state senator and his wife on Saturday (June 14), is an ordained missionary who has preached in Congo in recent years.
In a post on X, the FBI identified Boelter, 57, as a suspect in the killing of Rep. Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and Mark Hortman at their home in Champlin, a suburb of Minneapolis. The suspect, who had impersonated an officer to gain entry to the Hortmans’ home, was still at the crime scene when police officers arrived, but he escaped after an exchange of fire.
Earlier, the suspect had shot and wounded Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at their home.
Boelter identified himself on LinkedIn and other websites as the CEO and president of two security services companies, Praetorian Guard Security Services and Red Lion Group, the latter based in Congo, in western Africa. On his LinkedIn page, which shows that he worked as a general manager at 7-11 in Minneapolis until 2021, he lists himself as open to work.
But in a video dated February 2023, Boelter is seen preaching at La Borne Matadi, an evangelical church in Matadi, near the southern border in Congo. In one sermon he tells the audience that “people don’t know what sex they are” because the devil “has gotten so far into their mind and their soul.”
FBI poster of Vance Boelter. (Courtesy of FBI)
In another sermon at the church, one of three he gave from 2021 to 2023, according to Wired, Boelter said, “They don’t know abortion is wrong, many churches,” he told the audience. “They don’t have the gifts flowing. God gives the body gifts. To keep balance. Because when the body starts moving in the wrong direction, when they’re one, and accepting the gifts, God will raise an apostle or prophet to correct their course.
“God is going to raise up apostles and prophets in America,” he added, “to correct his church.”
On the now-defunct website for Revoformation, a nonprofit apparently founded by Boelter, a biography said that he was ordained in 1993 and had attended Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, a charismatic “Spirit-filled Bible School” according to its website, that helps develop ministry skills.
The biography said that Boelter had spent time in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where, it says, “He sought out militant Islamists in order to share the gospel and tell them that violence wasn’t the answer.”
Boelter also earned a degree in international relations at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, as well as a master’s degree in management and a doctorate in leadership from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee.
Law enforcement in Minnesota said a list containing more than 70 names, presumed to be potential targets, was found in the vehicle parked outside the Hortmans’ house. It included Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024, and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Walz appointed Boelter to Minnesota’s Governor’s Workforce Development Board in 2019, according to reports. Walz ordered flags in his state to half-staff in honor of Hortman. “Today Minnesota lost a great leader,” said Walz.