The wife of the man accused in the attacks on Minnesota legislators said Thursday that she and their children “are absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided.”

Vance L. Boelter, 57, is charged in the June 14 shootings that killed Rep. Melissa Hortman and husband, Mark, at their Brooklyn Park home, and that wounded Sen. John Hoffman and wife, Yvette, at their Champlin home.

Boelter’s wife, in her first public statement, expressed her family’s sympathies to the Hortman and Hoffman families.

“This violence does not at all align with our beliefs as a family,” Jenny Boelter said in the statement. “It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith. We are appalled and horrified by what occurred and our hearts are incredibly heavy for the victims of this unfathomable tragedy.”

Boelter, a father of five, graduated in 1990 from an interdenominational Bible college in Dallas, earning a diploma in practical theology in leadership.

Boelter, who long worked in the food industry before beginning to style himself as a private security contractor, offered a glimpse of his opposition to abortion in a 2023 sermon he gave in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, saying “they don’t know abortion is wrong in many churches.”

Several notebooks “full of hand-written notes” were found in Boelter’s abandoned police look-alike vehicle, Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson said previously. They included the names of more than 45 Minnesota state and federal elected officials, all Democrats. There were some abortion rights supporters included, Thompson said.

Wife says she voluntarily met with law enforcement

Jenny Boelter’s statement also asserted that she hadn’t been pulled over by law enforcement after the shootings. She said she received a call from law enforcement “and immediately drove to meet agents at a nearby gas station.”

She said they “voluntarily agreed to meet with them, answer their questions, provide all items they requested and cooperate with all searches,” according to the statement issued on her behalf by the Halberg Criminal Defense firm.

Law enforcement said they interacted with Jenny Boelter in Onamia, Minn., about 125 miles from her home, on the morning of June 14. She was traveling with four of her children to visit friends, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit filed in federal court.

“During an interview, Boelter’s wife identified that she had recently receive(d) a group text message from Boelter in a group text thread with their kids,” the affidavit said. “The text stated something to the effect of they should prepare for war, they needed to get out of the house and people with guns may be showing up to the house.”

“Boelter and his wife had been ‘preppers,’ or people who prepare for major or catastrophic incidents,” the affidavit continued. “At some point, Boelter had given his wife a ‘bailout plan’ — i.e., a plan of where to go in case of exigent circumstances — to go to her mother’s residence in” Wisconsin.

Law enforcement found about $10,000 in cash, two handguns and passports for Jenny Boelter and her children who were in the car, according to the federal criminal complaint against Vance Boelter. Jenny Boelter was legally in possession of the guns, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

After a large-scale manhunt, Vance Boelter was arrested on June 15 near his and his wife’s home in rural Sibley County. Jenny Boelter’s statement concluded: “We thank law enforcement for apprehending Vance and protecting others from further harm.”

Boelter is charged with murder in both federal and state court.

The Hortmans will lie in state on Friday in the Minnesota Capitol rotunda in St. Paul, along with their golden retriever, Gilbert. The rotunda will be open from noon to 5 p.m. for the public to pay their respects to the Hortmans. Their dog also was gravely wounded in the shooting and had to be euthanized.

Officer who fired handgun identified

Also on Thursday, authorities identified a Brooklyn Park police officer who fired his handgun when shots were fired at the Hortman home. The charges against Boelter say he was posing as an officer when he went to the homes of Hoffman, Hortman and two other legislators, whom he did not encounter.

Officers arrived to check on the Hortman home after the shootings at the Hoffman home and encountered a man who officials later identified as Boelter.

“As officers arrived, they encountered a vehicle resembling a squad car with emergency lights flashing in the Hortmans’ driveway and a man, later identified as Vance Boelter, at the front of the home dressed as a police officer,” according to a Thursday statement from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. “Shots were fired and Officer (Zachary) Baumtrog discharged his firearm in response.”

On the day of the shootings, officials said Boelter had shot at officers. Authorities said June 16 that is being further investigated.

“When Boelter saw the officers get out of the car, he drew his weapon and began firing,” Thompson said in announcing the federal charges against Boelter. “He rushed into the house through the front door, firing into it. He repeatedly fired into the house, and when he entered, he murdered Rep. Hortman and her husband, Mark.” He fled out the back door.

Baumtrog was wearing a body camera during the incident, which BCA agents are reviewing during their investigation into his use of force.

The officer has nine years of law enforcement experience. Brooklyn Park Police Department placed him on critical incident leave, which is standard.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.