What we know about the “radicalization” of Vance Boelter

One day after a gunman assassinated a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, a U.S. senator posted on X a front-door camera photo of the suspect wearing a hyper-realistic mask and banging on the door of state Sen. John Hoffman. “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote. He deleted the post after a brief discussion with Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., this week.

Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday notified the public that the killing of Democratic state Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were politically motivated. The gunman who killed the Hortmans also attacked Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at their home. They survived with gunshot wounds.

Since then, conservative influencers have referred to suspect Vance Boelter as a “Walz appointee” in reference to Democratic Gov. Walz, who reappointed Boelter to a governor’s advisory group years ago. Meanwhile, some Democrats, including elected politicians, have posted on social media that Boelter exemplified right-wing extremism because of his opposition to abortion.

While the left and the right try to pin Boelter down as an adherent to the other side, his past background, faith, and past speeches do not fully explain what could have motivated him to commit such a heinous crime.

What do we know about the suspect? Vance Boelter, 57, was charged this week with two counts of second-degree intentional murder, along with two counts of second-degree attempted intentional murder for the attack on the Hoffmans. He also faces federal charges of stalking and murder for his alleged assassination of Hortman and her husband. According to law enforcement, Boelter allegedly visited two other local lawmakers’ homes that night and had a list of roughly 70 targets, mostly Democrats and abortion centers.

Shortly after the attacks, Boelter texted his family group chat: “Dad went to war last night.”

Boelter did not have a large digital footprint and did not leave a clear manifesto as to his motives, according to law enforcement. A vehicle belonging to him was found with “No Kings” written on pages of paper, but it is not clear whether he supported the anti-Trump protests or planned to visit one to harm the protesters. Boelter’s friends called him a Trump-supporter and a Republican, but he served on the Democratic governor’s business workforce.

What is his work history? Boelter comes from a predominantly business background. His LinkedIn profile, which has been taken down, listed that he had a bachelor’s degree in international relations from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, and a master’s in management and a doctorate in leadership from Cardinal Stritch University, a Catholic school that has since closed. He worked in production and management for several food companies, including Nestle and Johnsonville Sausages. In 2018, Boelter and his wife, Jenny, founded the private security company Praetorian Guard Security Services in the Minneapolis area. As of May, he put an “open to work” sticker on his LinkedIn profile and said in a post that he was seeking new positions, possibly in the food industry. Most recently, he worked for a funeral home, generally tasked with retrieving dead bodies from assisted living facilities. Boelter also attended the two-year Christ for the Nations Institute, in Dallas, Texas, though he did not list the experience on his resume. The school gave him a diploma in practical theology in leadership and pastoral studies in 1990, according to a statement the institute released on Saturday.

Where did he go to church? Boelter attended a nondenominational church near Minneapolis called Jordan Family Church. The church’s website does not list a denominational affiliation and has taken down previously posted past sermons. In a statement on the home page, the church confirmed that Boelter was a member, and it disavowed the crimes he is accused of. The church is cooperating with law enforcement in the ongoing investigation. “This incident has devastated our church family and does not reflect our values or beliefs,” it said.

What is his educational background? Christ for the Nations Institute, where Boelter attended, is an unaccredited college with charismatic practices. Every student receives a diploma in practical theology and can choose an area of specialty. The institute was founded in 1970 by James Gordon Lindsay, an early proponent of the New Order of the Latter Rain movement, which was a precursor to charismatic movements like the Five Fold Ministries and the New Apostolic Reformation. The school teaches that God has appointed apostles to win over the culture and the world in preparation for the end times. The movement marked a departure from the Pentecostal denomination, which does not believe in modern-day apostles or the laying on of hands to impart spiritual gifts. At the time, mainstream Pentecostal churches rejected Lindsay and his movement as too extreme.

Boelter attended from 1988 to 1990, according to a statement from the school. The college wrote that Boelter’s alleged actions do not reflect its teachings and called him “spiritually bankrupt.”

The institute heavily influenced Christian worship music from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Student Marty Nystrom wrote and debuted the song “As the Deer” at a school worship service in 1981. Christian music artist Kari Jobe also attended, and Kevin Jonas (alumnus and father of the Jonas Brothers band) led worship from 1992 to 1996.

Other notable alumni include Dutch Sheets, a self-proclaimed apostle who spearheaded the “Stop the Steal” movement in 2019 and 2020. Cindy Jacobs is an advisor to the school and a self-described prophetic intercessor. She has preached that God chose President Donald Trump to lead the country into a Christian faith. She recently headlined a Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“It was like a basic seminary but less intellectual and more experiential,” 2002 alumnus Ryan Flanigan told me. He recalled several classes that used terminology related to warfare to teach students to evangelize and serve God, but he said it was clear the language was figurative and not an endorsement of violence. “The idea of taking the nation back for Jesus was implicit, and there was this syncretism between my American and Christian identity,” he said. “Violence was never taught, but I do feel like it was part of an inward formation.”

Does Christ for the Nations Institute teach violence? In its teaching, the institute often references a culture war and a battle against evil spiritual forces. The college wrote in a statement that it advocates for peace. Several news outlets have published a slogan from founder Lindsay: “Pray at least one violent prayer each day.” The college statement released this weekend clarified “violent” to mean fervent and energetic, not harmful. Leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation often preach dominionism, a theology that it is God’s will for Christians to take ownership of nations and spheres of influence to pave the way for the return of Christ. Flanigan said he did not recall the school teaching dominionism directly. Instead, it emphasized a personal and vigorous relationship with God, which was frequently expressed through worship. Flanigan said that many attendees at Christ for the Nations Institute spoke of other faith traditions, including Baptists, Catholics, and evangelicals, as non-Christian. Flanigan said he now disagrees with much of what he learned at the school. He serves as a worship director at an Episcopalian church in Austin, Texas.

What was Boelter’s religious life like? In 2006, Boelter founded Revoformation, a religious nonprofit. The website was only active until 2011. A biography posted to the website stated Boelter had spent time in Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, where he “sought out militant Islamists in order to share the gospel and tell them that violence wasn’t the answer.” He started several nonprofits that did not appear to last long. In 2021, he shifted to trying to build a nonprofit called the Red Lion Group based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to an archived website, it was meant to build jobs in Africa in food production, electro-mechanical technical assembly, oil refining, and glass production. He posted to LinkedIn that he had meetings in the country about business investments but never announced what came of them.

Was he a pastor? According to an archived version of the Revoformation website, he said he had been ordained in 1993 but did not say by what church. Between 2021 and 2023, Boelter preached four times at La Borne Matadi, a church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His messages focused heavily on his joy in God, the importance of following God’s plan for his life, and pursuing unity in churches. He once lamented in a sermon that churches were not unified in condemnation of abortion. In another sermon, he said that, “God is going to raise up apostles and prophets in America to correct his church.” Boelter did not refer to himself as such an apostle. In addressing matters of sexuality, Boelter called people who identify as LGBTQ “confused” and said, “The enemy has gotten so far into their mind and their soul.” In a 2019 LinkedIn post, he encouraged people to vote in upcoming elections and to pray, but he did not endorse any particular candidate or political cause.

What is his political affiliation? In 2016, Boelter volunteered for the Governor’s Workforce Development Board, a nonpartisan group of roughly 60 business owners who advised Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat. In 2019, Gov. Tim Walz reappointed Boelter. According to Walz’s office, the appointments were routine and did not indicate a personal relationship between Boelter and either governor. Boelter’s time on the workforce board overlapped with that of state Sen. John Hoffman, the lawmaker whom Boelter is accused of shooting along with his wife. Police have not determined whether Hoffman and Boelter met while on the board. Boelter’s term expired in 2023.

Several posts on social media falsely claim that Jenny Boelter, Vance’s wife, interned for Walz in 2010 in his congressional office. While a woman named Jenny Boelter did work in Walz’s office that year, it was not the same woman. Little is known about Boelter’s wife. Her academic and work history is not public. She is listed on the Praetorian Guard Security Services website as the CEO, while Vance Boelter is listed as the chief of security.

Minnesota does not track voters by party affiliation. A Minnesota Reformer article reports that Boelter voted in the 2024 Republican primary, but it refers to a non-government voter profile and the process of elimination in the 2024 Legal Marijuana Now primary. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party released voter data to the Star Tribune that Boelter did not vote in any Democratic primary. The state Republican party declined to release voter data, citing that it is private. David Carlson, a friend from whom Boelter rented a room, told reporters that Boelter was a conservative and watched news from Alex Jones’ Infowars platform. Carlson also claimed to have received texts from Boelter after the attacks but would not show them to the media. Instead he only read them aloud: “I’ve made some choices, and you guys don’t know anything about this. … Wish it hadn’t gone this way.” Another friend, Paul Schroeder, told The Associated Press that Boelter was religious “but never fanatical, from what I saw, just strong beliefs.”

“We often want easy answers for complex problems,” Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said at a briefing on Sunday. “Those answers will come as we complete the full picture of our investigation.”