Wife of Minnesota lawmaker shooting suspect speaks out: 'Completely blindsided'
The wife of accused Minnesota lawmaker gunman Vance Boelter said she's "completely blindsided" by the shootings allegedly carried out by her husband.
"On behalf of my children and myself, I want to express our deepest sympathies to the Hortman and Hoffman families," Jenny Boelter said in a statement released by her attorneys on Thursday. "We are absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided."
"It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith," she continued. "We are appalled and horrified by what occurred and our hearts are incredibly heavy for the victims of this unfathomable tragedy.”
Vance Boelter is accused of shooting and killing Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in Brooklyn Park and shooting and wounding Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their house in nearby Champlin on June 14, authorities said.
Vance Boelter, 57, allegedly showed up to their doors in the middle of the night impersonating a police officer and wearing a realistic-looking latex mask to carry out his "political assassinations," prosecutors said.
When Vance Boelter allegedly fled the Hortmans' home, sparking a massive manhunt, investigators recovered a list of about 45 elected officials in notebooks in his car, according to prosecutors. Two other lawmakers were spared the night of the shootings, officials said.
Jenny Boelter stressed in her statement that her family has cooperated with law enforcement from the start. She said when the authorities called her on the morning of June 14, she immediately drove to meet them.
"We were not pulled over; we parked and waited until they arrived," she said. "We voluntarily agreed to meet with them, answer their questions, provide all items they requested, and cooperate with all searches."
But authorities offer a different version of events.
Law enforcement pulled the locations of the Boelters' phones and then about a dozen squad cars stopped Jenny Boelter while she was driving with her four children, according to a probable cause affidavit.
During the stop, Jenny Boelter was questioned and consented to a search of her car, the affidavit said. When police searched her car, they found a safe, the family's passports, about $10,000 in cash and two guns, the affidavit said.
Jenny Boelter allegedly told police she that she'd received a text from her husband that morning in a group thread with their kids, the document 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," according to the affidavit.
"Boelter and his wife had been 'preppers,' or people who prepare for major or catastrophic incidents," the affidavit said. "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 her mother’s residence in Spring Brook, Wisconsin."
No arrests were made and Jenny Boelter was "cooperative," authorities have said.
After a nearly 48-hour manhunt, Vance Boelter was apprehended without incident.
"We thank law enforcement for apprehending Vance and protecting others from further harm," Jenny Boelter said at the conclusion of her statement.
Vance Boelter faces federal charges including stalking and state charges including first-degree murder. He has not entered a plea and is due in court on Friday for a preliminary hearing.
ABC News' Sasha Pezenik and Christiane Cordero contributed to this report.
