A federal grand jury indictment announced Tuesday against Vance Boelter includes special findings that pave the way for federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

At a news conference Tuesday, Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said the six-count indictment in connection with the shooting deaths of former Democratic-Farmer-Labor House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife and daughter included a notice of special findings.

“These special findings are the first step for seeking the death penalty,” he said. “The ultimate decision will not come for several months.”

When asked by reporters if his office would seek the death penalty, Thompson said it was “too soon to tell” and that many people would be involved and consulted in the decision, including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the families of those killed and injured, and the capital case unit in the U.S. Department of Justice.

“This political assassination, the likes of which have never occurred here in the state of Minnesota, has shook our state at a foundational level,” said Thompson, the chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota.

Prosecutors initially charged Boelter in a complaint with the six counts, including murder, stalking and firearms offenses. But under federal court rules, they needed a grand jury indictment to take the case to trial.

Prosecutors say Boelter, 57, was driving a fake squad car, wearing a realistic rubber mask that covered his head and wearing tactical gear around 2 a.m. on June 14 when he went to the home of John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in Champlin.

“We now know that Vance Boelter not only shot at Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, but he also shot at, and attempted to kill, their daughter, Hope Hoffman,” Thompson said. “Both John and Yvette acted with incredible bravery, put themselves between Boelter’s bullets and their daughter. Miraculously, Hope was not shot. But she was the fifth intended victim of Vance Boelter that night,” Thompson said, noting that it was why Hope Hoffman was included in the indictment.

Boelter allegedly shot the senator nine times, and Yvette Hoffman eight times, but they survived.

Prosecutors allege he then stopped at the homes of two other lawmakers. One, in Maple Grove, wasn’t home, while a police officer may have scared him off from the second, in New Hope. Boelter then allegedly went to the Hortmans’ home in nearby Brooklyn Park and killed both of them.

Brooklyn Park police, who had been alerted to the shootings of the Hoffmans, arrived at the Hortman home around 3:30 a.m., moments before the gunman opened fire on the couple, the complaint said.

What happened

Thompson said security and surveillance footage had provided investigators with more details of what happened when Boelter arrived at the Hortman home. Thompson provided the following details of the events that unfolded:

After arriving in an SUV disguised to look like a police vehicle with flashing lights, Boelter allegedly got out of the car wearing a hyper-realistic mask, dark brown wig, black gloves and a yellow gun on his chest. He then rang the doorbell and shouted, “Police! Welfare check!”

When Mark Hortman answered the door, Thompson said, Boelter shone a flashlight in the man’s eyes and said there had been reports of shots fired at the home. Hortman said he didn’t know anything about a shooting and said, “Good God, I was asleep.”

Then Hortman said to Boelter, who was standing about six feet away, “We can’t see you.” He also asked for Boelter’s name and badge number.

Boelter allegedly hesitated a moment and said, “Nelson 286.”

Then, when Brooklyn Park police arrived, Boelter allegedly fired a volley of gunshots into the home from the doorway. Police fired and Boelter charged into the home. Security footage captured audio of another volley of gunshots, Thompson said.

Police say Boelter ran past Mark Hortman’s body and into the home, where he shot Melissa Hortman several times at close range as she attempted to flee up the stairs.

Audio also captures gunfire when Boelter allegedly shot Gilbert, the family’s golden retriever, who was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized.

Boelter then fled out the back door of the home, Thompson said.

Boelter left behind his car, which contained notebooks listing dozens of Democratic officials as potential targets with their home addresses, as well as five guns and a large quantity of ammunition.

Outside the Hortmans’ home, investigators found a Beretta 92 9mm handgun that Thompson said was used in the Hoffman shooting. A few days later in a pond near the Hortman home, Thompson said, another Beretta 9mm handgun was found. Forensic testing has shown this was used in the Hortman killings, he said.

Law enforcement officers finally captured Boelter about 40 hours later, about a mile from his rural home in Green Isle, after what authorities called the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history.

Letter found in vehicle

Thompson said they believe Boelter acted alone.

“There is no evidence that anyone else helped him carry out these crimes that night,” he said.

As to why Boelter allegedly committed the crimes, “that’s a harder question,” Thompson said.

“The investigation has confirmed that this was an act of political extremism,” he said. “Vance Boelter set out that night to commit a targeted political assassination” and appeared to be targeting Minnesota Democratic politicians that night.

When authorities arrested Boelter, they found an abandoned car with a cowboy hat on top of it and a letter inside the vehicle.

In the letter, Thompson said, Boelter confesses to the shootings and also claims he was “trained by the U.S. military off the books, conducted missions on behalf of the U.S. military in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.”

The letter also says Gov. Tim Walz told Boelter to kill U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith and that people had threatened to hurt his family if he didn’t do so. He claims he met with people to discuss this request and that when he arrived at the meeting, people were waiting there to kill him, Thompson said. He wrote that he got away but later went back to shoot those people.

When a reporter said it was probably clear that Boelter had not been trained by the U.S. military and that it was “all a fantasy,” Thompson said, “Yes, I agree.”

A reporter asked if the statements in the letter were delusional or a ruse.

“Was it a delusion that he believes or was it a delusion that is designed as an effort of myth to misdirect our investigation or to excuse his crimes?” Thompson asked. “Well, that’s a good question. It certainly seems designed to excuse his crimes.”

Sen. Hoffman is out of the hospital and is now at a rehabilitation facility, his family announced last week, adding he has a long road to recovery. Yvette Hoffman was released a few days after the attack. Former President Joe Biden visited the senator in the hospital when he was in town for the Hortmans’ funeral.

Boelter interview

Friends have described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views who had been struggling to find work. At a hearing July 3, Boelter said he was “looking forward to the facts about the 14th coming out.”

In an interview published by the New York Post on Saturday, Boelter insisted the shootings had nothing to do with his opposition to abortion or his support for President Donald Trump, but he declined to discuss why he allegedly killed the Hortmans and wounded the Hoffmans.

“You are fishing and I can’t talk about my case. … I’ll say it didn’t involve either the Trump stuff or pro life,” Boelter wrote in a message to the newspaper via the jail’s messaging system.

It ultimately will be up to Bondi, in consultation with the local U.S. attorney’s office, to decide whether to seek the federal death penalty. Minnesota abolished its state death penalty in 1911. But the Trump administration says it intends to be aggressive in seeking capital punishment for eligible federal crimes.

Boelter also faces state murder and attempted murder charges in Hennepin County, but the federal case will go first.

A court appearance date on the indictment had not been set as of Tuesday afternoon, Thompson said, but it is expected that Boelter would appear in federal court one day this week.

This report includes information from the Associated Press.