A man accused of killing a US politician and her husband went to the homes of other lawmakers that night, intending to kill them, officials said. 

Vance Boelter, 57, meticulously planned his attacks, carrying out surveillance missions, taking notes on the properties and people he targeted and disguising himself as a police officer, according to Minnesota’s acting US attorney Joseph Thompson.

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Authorities believe Boelter wore a mask as he posed as a police officer and shone a torch in the face of some of his victims to disguise his identity.

“It is no exaggeration to say that his crimes are the stuff of nightmare,” said Mr Thompson.

Boelter, 57, allegedly shot and wounded Senator John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in their Minneapolis home in the early hours of Saturday morning.

He then travelled to the home of another state lawmaker but she and her family were on holiday, so they didn’t answer the door, said Mr Thompson.

Video showed that Boelter rang the doorbell at around 2.24am on Friday but left when the family didn’t respond.

He then drove to the home of an unnamed state senator, but after the Hoffmans’ adult daughter called emergency services to say her parents had been shot, a police officer was dispatched to conduct a wellness check.

That officer saw Boelter’s car parked up the street but thought he was another officer, said Mr Thompson.

Boelter had reportedly altered his car to make it look more like a police car.

He then left and drove to the home of lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, according to an FBI affidavit.

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Local police officers, also conducting a check, arrived to see Boelter fatally shoot Mark Hortman through the open door of the home, according to the document.

Melissa Hortman was found dead inside.

Boelter was arrested on Sunday evening after a huge manhunt in a rural area in Sibley County, southwest of Minneapolis.

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He faces two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder in the deaths of the Hortmans and the wounding of Mr Hoffman and his wife.

Before his arrest, the father of five texted his family group chat saying: “Dad went to war last night … I don’t wanna say more because I don’t wanna implicate anybody,” according to the affidavit.

His wife got another text that said: “Words are not gonna explain how sorry I am for this situation… there’s gonna be some people coming to the house armed and trigger-happy and I don’t want you guys around,” the document said.

Several AK-style firearms and a list of about 70 names, which included politicians and abortion rights activists, were allegedly found inside his vehicle.

A Minnesota official said politicians who had been outspoken in favour of abortion rights were on the list.

“Holy, holy, holy” they sang at the Church of St Timothy in Blaine, Minnesota.

But the congregation is struggling to comprehend an act of evil – the brutal murder of one of their own.

Melissa Hortman grew up here. The former state speaker and her husband Mark were shot dead in their home on Saturday morning.

Her friend and party colleague, Erin Koegal, was among those attending mass.

“It still feels like a bad dream. I woke up this morning and was like, okay, so that was real,” she said.

“It’s hit me in waves, the grief, and the anger, and the sadness. She was a leader, a true definition of a leader.

“I’ve never known our party without Melissa as the leader and so I can’t, I don’t even know how we’re going to go forward as a caucus without her.”

State senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette had already been shot and wounded.

Police sent to check on his colleague, Melissa Hortman, didn’t get there in time.

The suspect – 57-year-old Vance Boelter – was detained after a two-day manhunt.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called it a “politically motivated murder”.

Read more here:
Neighbours of murdered US politician stunned
Manhunt after Minnesota politician and husband shot dead

Friends of Ms Hortman have told Sky News that her two children feared for their mother’s life after reading divisive rhetoric directed at her online.

Matt Norris, another political colleague of Ms Hortman, was also at church, reflecting on the rise of political violence in America.

“We’ve going to have to do some serious introspection as a state, as a country, and figure out how do we get beyond this,” he said.

“How have we been laying the seeds that have led to horrific acts of violence against public servants like this?

“And it’s going to be incumbent upon us as leaders to set a different tone, to set a different direction for our state and our country so that horrific tragedies like this never occur again.”

But there’s no sign of division at the State Capitol Building, where flags fly at half-mast and flowers are being left in tribute.

This is a community united in grief and in its hope for an end to gun violence in America.

A juror has been dismissed from the Sean “Diddy” Combs sex-trafficking trial after hearing five weeks of evidence.

Judge Arun Subramanian said he had “concerns” about the jury member’s “candour” and made the decision after it emerged the man – Juror 6 – had given inconsistent answers about where he lives.

This could indicate he potentially had an agenda, that he wanted to be on the panel hearing the Combs trial for a purpose, the judge said, and there was nothing the juror could say that would “put the genie back in the bottle”.

Diddy trial: Day 24 – as it happened

Questions over whether the juror, a black male, resided in New York or across the Hudson River in the state of New Jersey first arose at the end of last week – but defence lawyers argued dismissing him would disrupt the diversity of the jury.

However, the judge rejected this argument ahead of the start of Monday’s court session, excusing the juror and replacing him with one of the alternates, a white male.

A review of the juror’s answers to questions about his residency during jury selection, along with his subsequent responses to similar questions, revealed “clear inconsistencies”, the judge said.

“Taking these all together, the record raised serious concerns as to the juror’s candour and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the jury,” Judge Subramanian said.

Leaving the juror on the panel could threaten the integrity of the judicial process, he added.

“The court should not, indeed cannot, let race factor into the decision of what happens. Here, the answer is clear. Juror number six is excused,” Judge Subramanian said.

Special agent and paralegal testify

Following the juror’s dismissal, the sixth week of the trial began – with testimony from a paralegal specialist and a special agent, who both gave evidence as summary witnesses.

This means they were not involved in the criminal investigation into Combs, but were tasked with reviewing some evidence, including charts, phone records and data. In court, the aim is to provide context to the testimony heard so far and how it relates to the charges against the hip-hop mogul.

During paralegal specialist Ananya Sankar’s testimony, the court heard about texts appearing to reference “freak offs” – sexual encounters with male escorts which former girlfriends Cassie Ventura and “Jane”, two of three alleged victims to give evidence during the trial, both say Combs forced them into.

Cassie was in an on-off relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018, while Jane – a pseudonym – dated him on and off from the beginning of 2021 to his arrest in September 2024.

Chicken soup and $4,000 cash

In messages from March 2016, Combs’s then chief of staff Kristina Khorram appeared to ask an assistant to set a hotel room up, with items requested including Gatorade, water and chicken noodle soup. “He wants you to go right away now please,” a message said.

In another text, Khorram asked workers to fetch $4,000 in cash and to ensure a male escort was given access to the hotel room, the court heard.

The court also heard about messages sent around the time of the bombshell civil lawsuit filed against Combs by Cassie in November 2023 – which was settled within 24 hours for a then undisclosed sum, revealed to be $20m during the trial.

By this time, Combs was seeing Jane. According to an audio file of a conversation, Jane told Combs after finding out about Cassie’s lawsuit: “I don’t know what I’m feeling… this is so word for word, it is crazy and it just feels sick to my stomach.”

On 28 November 2023, about two weeks later, Jane told Combs she felt he exploited her with their “dark and humiliating lifestyle”.

The following month, the court heard Jane said in a message to Khorram: “He said he would expose me and send videos to my baby daddy… I am traumatised by my time with him.”

Jane said she would not normally involve Khorram in such matters, but told her she needed help as Combs was having one of his “evil-ass psychotic bipolar” episodes.

Jane told Khorram that she was heavily drugged in the tapes.

Although it was not clear exactly what she was referencing, a message sent to Combs by Khorram around the time of the lawsuit seemed to show some friction between the pair.

“If you cannot be honest with me this doesn’t work,” she told him, according to the messages. Combs “keeping things” to himself put them in the “situation we are all in right now”, she added.

Towards the end of the court day, videos entered into evidence under seal were played by the prosecution. This means the jury and lawyers could see and hear what was happening, but members of the public in court could not.

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Prosecutors have said they expect to conclude their case later this week. After this, Combs’s defence team will begin theirs.

Last week, Kanye West turned up at the court in Manhattan, New York, to support the rapper, spending about 40 minutes in the building watching proceedings on a monitor in an overflow room.

Combs’s mother, Janice Combs, and several of his children have also consistently shown up throughout the hearing.

Diddy denies charges of sex-trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy.

The trial continues.