Tim Walz (00:02):
Good evening. After two-day manhunt, two sleepless night, law enforcement have apprehended Vance Bolter. That's 48 hours that law enforcement involved in a complex and dangerous manhunt, spent Father's Day away from their families to deliver justice for Melissa and Mark Hortman and their children who spent this Father's Day alone.
(00:28)
To the law enforcement who stand here and the hundreds who were involved in this, the state of Minnesota owes you a deep debt of gratitude. Thank you. You ran towards the danger and you served the state of Minnesota.
(00:42)
This is a great example of coordination and collaboration. Multiple agencies, federal, state, and local, coordinating together in a way to protect the public and close this hunt around. Multiple agencies were there as FBI laid hands on it and Minnesota State Patrol put the handcuffs on.
(01:05)
One man's unthinkable actions have altered the state of Minnesota. Melissa Hortman was the core of who our values were. She had a hand in so many things that happened. The building that we stand in, she helped usher through so that we could respond from the State Emergency Operations Center with the professionalism and giving the tools necessary to law enforcement to do their job.
(01:30)
To Melissa and Mark's family, we cannot fathom your pain and the grief that you're going through. We'll take solace in the memory and the work that Melissa did, and you can rest assured that we will put every ounce of effort that the state of Minnesota has to make sure that justice is served and the individual responsible for this serves the time for the unspeakable act. State grieves with you.
(02:00)
The latest news is Senator Hoffman came out of final surgery and is moving towards that, towards recovery. A vet is healing. And I think when the story comes out, and I'd like to say on behalf of the state of Minnesota, the heroic actions by the Hoffman family and their daughter, Hope, saved countless lives and we are grateful.
(02:21)
Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will continue to investigate. We will keep you informed. We'll spare no expense and no work to make sure that that happens.
(02:31)
A moment in this country where we watched violence erupt, this cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences. Now's the time for us to recommit to the core values of this country. And each and every one of us can do it. Talk to a neighbor rather than arguing, debate an issue, shake hands, find common ground.
(02:58)
This is who Melissa Hortman was. In the first negotiating session that I had a chance to work with her, she got all the partners in the room and she provided each and every one of us a copy of a book called Getting to Yes, and the whole premise was debating with a sense of goodwill, a sense of trying to come to compromises that serve everyone. And because of her, we did that. Because of her, we did that year after year after year.
(03:25)
That's the embodiment of how things are supposed to work. It's not about hatred. It's not about mean tweets. It's not about demeaning someone. It's leading with grace and compassion and vision and compromise and decency. That was taken from us in Minnesota with the murder of Speaker Hortman.
(03:48)
So for each and every one of us to truly honor, and we will, we will continue to honor that spirit, but we will need to do it in just more than actions and a memorial. Conducting ourselves in the spirit that Melissa Hortman did her work is what the country needs to heal.
(04:06)
I'll once again say the deep debt of gratitude. These professionals standing behind us and countless others, you'll hear from them, incredibly complex, and to take this suspect in with no loss of life or injuries to civilian population and to bring him in alive so he can serve justice, which he will do in Minnesota is an incredible thing that we are grateful for. With that, I'm going to turn it over to the professionals starting with Commissioner of Public Safety for the State of Minnesota, Bob Jacobson.
(04:41)
Thank you.
Bob Jacobson (04:50):
Good evening. It's good to see you all here tonight. Thank you for coming in. My name is Bob Jacobson. I'm the Commissioner of Public Safety, and again, it's my honor to serve in that position.
(05:00)
First of all, I want to thank all of the law enforcement agencies that have been working tirelessly over the past two years since the shooting at Senator Hoffman's home. The coordination between state, local and federal law enforcement partners is the reason we are here tonight and the suspect is in custody.
(05:21)
Bolter exploited the trust our uniforms are meant to represent. That betrayal is deeply disturbing to those of us who wear the badge with honor and responsibility. We want to thank community members across the state for their support, for their tips and their information. And I want to thank Governor Walz for his continued support through this very difficult time.
(05:48)
With that, I will pass this off to Superintendent Drew Evans of the BCA. Thank you.
Drew Evans (05:57):
Well, good evening everyone. My name is Drew Evans. I'm Superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. As is noted and was previously described, Vance Bolter was taken into custody in Sibley County. We were with you earlier today when we provided information about the manhunt and the myriad of law enforcement that have come together working in partnership so that this evil cannot be continued.
(06:25)
The first step in a case like this is that we take him into custody and then the work will continue and begin to make sure that we have all the evidence we need to ensure that he's held accountable for his crimes.
(06:37)
Please bear with me, but I think it's important because it has been noted by the governor just to give you some background on the teams that were down there, and I may even be missing some in terms of this because there were law enforcement partners not just from the Twin Cities but across the state of Minnesota that came together.
(06:52)
The Brooklyn Park Police Department, the Tri-City SWAT team, Eagan Police Department, Burnsville Police Department, our South Metro SWAT team, the FBI, ATF, United States Marshals Service, State Patrol, Washington County Sheriff's Office, Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, the Richfield Police Department, St. Paul Police Department, Bloomington Police Department, Sibley County. We had Riverview Medics, Greenisle Fire Department and LifeLink in the area, in addition to Prior Lake, Crew River SWAT and the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, and again, I may have been missing and I apologize to my partners for that, that we do that.
(07:33)
I share all of that for you because that's the commitment when this sort of evil is in one of our communities, that law enforcement comes together to put all of their resources together to make sure that that person is taken into custody. That is so that people across the state of Minnesota and legislators that were targeted in these attacks and that may have been listed can breathe a sigh of relief as quickly as possible as we came together in an incredibly complex set of circumstances in that.
(08:00)
He was arrested, as you saw, earlier this evening in the area of 35600 block, 35600 block at 200 Street Greenisle. What happened in that is as we noted, there was a manhunt going throughout the day in that area that we've discussed previously, and there was information provided that he was seen in the area.
(08:23)
When that information was provided to the investigators that were conducting the ground search, they converged on the area with a number of SWAT teams with the assistance of the air wing from Minnesota State Patrol and we'll provide a few more details about the end of tipping into custody in a little bit, but he was taken into custody at that time.
(08:43)
He is in custody and a reminder for anybody that was not when we've previously said that taken into custody under a state criminal warrant. That information will be made public if it is not already, detailing the complaint that he is charged in the cases at this time with the murders of Speaker Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, also with the shootings in John Hoffman and Yvette Hoffman for those crimes and we'll be moving forward.
(09:14)
We're also in close contact with our federal partners, both the FBI, United States Attorney's Office who are examining whether or not additional charges should be brought at the federal level related to this at this time.
(09:27)
There is a lot of investigation that continues and I'm going to turn it over to Chief Bruley to provide some comments on this and the work. I just want to tell certainly for the communities of Champlin City of Brooklyn Park, you both have incredibly professional police departments that work day in, day out and tirelessly in this situation to bring justice and work towards that, not only for the families and the loved ones and the community that are impacted, but for the entire state of Minnesota, and our teams are incredibly proud to work alongside them and all the law enforcement partners.
(09:57)
And so with that, I will turn it over to Chief Bruley for some comments on this and the work will continue in partnership with them and others moving forward. Chief.
Mark Bruley (10:08):
Good evening. I'm Police Chief Mark Bruley, Brooklyn Park Police Department. Just a few comments. One, I'm very proud to tell you that we took the suspect into custody who's responsible for this. That was within 43 hours of the incident. There's no question that this is the largest manhunt in the state's history.
(10:26)
Just down at the scene where he was taken into custody, there was 20 different SWAT teams over a extremely large area hunting this individual down to take him into custody. I believe that the state of Minnesota and certainly the city of Brooklyn Park should be extremely proud of the police officers within the city of Brooklyn Park, but the partnerships that we had are unprecedented between the federal agents, the county, the locals, and others around. It is absolutely an incredible task what went on.
(10:57)
Essentially the Brooklyn Park Police Department was turned over into an operations center and that's all that hundreds of detectives worked on tirelessly for 43 hours. So while this has come to some conclusion where we've made an arrest, there is a ton of work that needs to be done, so I encourage community members if there's evidence, information or other things, please continue to feed that information to Brooklyn Park Police Department so that we can fully investigate this and present a complete case to both the federal jurisdiction and the Hennepin County Attorney's office. With that, I'll turn it over to the State Patrol.
Jeremy Geiger (11:35):
Good evening everyone. My name is Jeremy Geiger. I'm the lieutenant Colonel with the Minnesota State Patrol, the assistant chief.
(11:41)
The Minnesota State Patrol, along with countless other partners were responsible for this arrest. The collaborative effort, I cannot stress enough how outstanding that was helped ensure the suspect's arrest did not result in the injury of any law enforcement that was down there and in the area.
(11:59)
We had special response teams on the scene, near 200 Street in Sibley County. Several partner law enforcement SWAT teams positioned to form a perimeter at that point in time. The State Patrol also provided the air support that was talked about earlier today.
(12:14)
The suspect crawled to law enforcement teams and was placed under arrest at that point in time. There was no use of force by any member of law enforcement that was out there and the suspect was taken into custody without any use of force. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
With that, we will open it up for a few questions. Reminder, please introduce yourself, reveal your organization. If you have a question for one of the specific individuals, please feel free to point that out as well.
Speaker 7 (12:39):
[inaudible 00:12:40] with NBC News. Can I ask to anyone up here to speak to it? Did the suspect make any key mistakes that you feel like has led to his [inaudible 00:12:52]
Drew Evans (12:55):
The question is, were there any key mistakes? We certainly at this point, there's a lot of information we can't share right now in this. What I will tell you is there is some incredibly dedicated law enforcement personnel, criminal intelligence analysts that were out working day in, day out, working together. And what I will tell you is that the public certainly is always of his assistance to us in law enforcement and incredibly diligent people in the area that provided us the assistance that we needed to get our teams that were already down there, that last piece over, but they were certainly in the area and working diligently together on that.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
[inaudible 00:13:30] One at a time guys.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
Drew, [inaudible 00:13:34] do you have any indication that anyone helped him?
Drew Evans (13:38):
The question is, any indication anybody helped him? We continue to look into that. I don't have anything beyond what we shared earlier today. This investigation, as Chief Bruley noted, will be continuing to expand at this point in time to make sure that we continue to look at all angles of this. And everybody did help him, we will certainly hold them accountable for doing that in this process.
Adrienne Broaddus (14:00):
Drew, Adrienne Broaddus from NBC News. Can you tell us how the Hoffmans helped save lives and what did the suspect say when he was taken into custody?
Drew Evans (14:13):
The question was how the Hoffmans helped save lives and what …. Okay, I don't have the specific … And then what did he say when he was taken into custody? I don't have the specifics on what he said when he was taken into custody. We're incredibly grateful that the Hoffmans are still here with us at this point in time, and that they will be hopefully on a continued path to recovery and that they will provide us the information. We've been able to talk to them today and they will be providing key information to us as part of this investigation moving forward.
Speaker 10 (14:40):
Sir, can I ask? [inaudible 00:14:42] CBS News. Did the suspect have a phone with him when he was caught? Was he tracked in any way or it was just trackings and tips?
Drew Evans (14:52):
At the end? The question is did he have a phone with him? I don't have the specifics on everything that was with him when he was arrested at this time. I will say he was armed and that he came when he was taken into custody, but we'll be sifting through all of that information from there.
Speaker 10 (15:04):
Can you expand on the weapons?
Drew Evans (15:05):
What's that?
Speaker 10 (15:05):
Can you expand on the weapons?
Drew Evans (15:07):
I can't on the weapons at this time.
Paul Blume (15:08):
[inaudible 00:15:10]
Drew Evans (15:08):
Paul, go on.
Paul Blume (15:12):
Paul Blume, Fox 9, just kind of elaborating on an awkward question. To me the encounter at that Speaker Hortman's house was I believe an important part for the police, there was gunfire there, the fact that he had to abandon that vehicle with several weapons [inaudible 00:15:33] as a criminal complaint. How significant was that in preventing any further tragedy ending with him on the ground in Sibley County a couple hours ago?
Drew Evans (15:36):
Yeah. The question is again, expanding on the Hoffmans and providing addition. What I'll tell you, Chief Bruley mentioned this yesterday and his police officers going to check proactively on Speaker Hortman's home at that time. If that had not had happened, I have every confidence that this would've continued throughout the day by his officers encountering him at that. He was forced to abandon the vehicle that he had at that time and lead to what we got to today. So by that incident occurring and the law enforcement communication that was occurring, it allowed the proactive approach that was able to get to the point where they were able to now eventually take him into custody today.
(16:19)
Just go ahead.
Speaker 12 (16:19):
Thank you. I just want to clarify. There's a little bit of detail that the Ramsey County Sheriff has provided. I just wanted to see if we can nail it down. So the detail that he had provided to the Star Tribune is that for about an hour, Bolter had tried to evade arrest and that aid teams crawled in a ditch to try to corral him. I don't know if you have that level of detail, but additionally because you were able to take him into custody without incident, what did your law enforcement officers say to him to lure him out and have him come peacefully?
Drew Evans (16:44):
So the question is about the teams and then what was done to get him into custody. So we don't get into operational details for the safety of our law enforcement going forward in terms of what it is. But what I can say is the incredible teamwork that was done and the large number of law enforcement certainly put us in a position where they were able to maneuver into this area to safely put him in a place where, I don't know what was going through his head and I wouldn't speculate, but they have incredibly professional teams that are trained on this and how to take somebody into custody and they provided the commands and he gave up peacefully.
Jonah Kaplan (17:22):
Superintendent, Jonah Kaplan from WCCO and CBS News. First, if you could just speak personally for you and all your colleagues, I imagine this is a relief for a lot of you. Can you talk about what it means to you personally to have this done? Only a few hours ago, you weren't sure if he was in the state, let alone in the country.
Drew Evans (17:40):
The question is the relief for all of us. I mean, the relief for us in law enforcement is we feel an incredible amount of pressure to bring a person into custody, bring safety to the community. These professionals behind me and their teams, this is what they do, this is what they get paid to do and they're honored to do the work on behalf of Minnesotans every single day. So the relief is that we can bring that sense of relief to communities across Minnesota legislators that were on that list and that's what we want to do.
Speaker 14 (18:06):
Matt [inaudible 00:18:08] with the New York [inaudible 00:18:08] At what point did you get the call and from whom generally that he was in that area in [inaudible 00:18:15]
Drew Evans (18:17):
The question was on the call and when did we get it? It was happening over the time. I don't have the specific timeline, but we were alerted as soon as there was a spotting of the person in the area for all of the command staff here and as our teams continued to work and as they worked in and honed in.
Speaker 14 (18:30):
Can you speak a little more about the technology that was used? You said today earlier that you received about 400 tips. Do you know there was surveillance footage that was used for pictures? You just mentioned someone talked about the air team. Was it a fixed wing? Was it a helicopter that was following him? What role did technology play?
Drew Evans (18:48):
Yeah, the question is what role, and I can't get into all the technology obviously, just some of it is that we do is don't share the information to make sure that we protect it so it's utilized going forward. However, I will say that both UAVs throughout the day are incredibly important to our teams. Unmanned aerial vehicles that we use, that there were numerous ones out there providing that. And then our helicopter in this situation provides an incredibly important bird's eye view that also allows us special views to be able to see individuals such as infrared and others that we utilize on a regular basis.
(19:22)
Technology in cases like this are incredible tools to be able to supplement the great hard work of all the people that were on the ground every day.
Speaker 15 (19:29):
[inaudible 00:19:30]
Drew Evans (19:32):
Let's go here first.
Speaker 15 (19:33):
A question [inaudible 00:19:35] Where is he being held currently?
Drew Evans (19:36):
So right now he is being interviewed at a law enforcement facility. More information on where he will actually be ultimately will be released at a later time.
Speaker 15 (19:46):
What law enforcement agency and what facility?
Drew Evans (19:49):
I can't share where he is currently, but that information will be available soon.
Speaker 16 (19:52):
Can you be more specific about the setting in which he was? I know there are things he can get away, but we see things like trails and fields, you talked about him crawling. What can you tell us about where he was hiding during this time?
Drew Evans (20:05):
Yeah. So this is, where was he hiding? This is in a rural area. These are fields in different wooded settings around and that's where he was ultimately captured. Sibley County is a rural county in the state of Minnesota, and so it's what a lot of that streams, fields, woods, crops. And so where he was ultimately taken into custody was in a field.
Speaker 16 (20:27):
Did the infrared technology help you find him, identify from the air?
Drew Evans (20:28):
I don't … If you want?
Speaker 16 (20:28):
The commissioner had mentioned some of that earlier. I wonder if that's something that helped.
Jeremy Geiger (20:36):
Yes, absolutely. It assisted previously and they were out there. The helicopter was out there before the sun went down, but after that happened, yes, that technology did came into play.
Speaker 16 (20:51):
How long did you know that he was there?
Jeremy Geiger (20:51):
I'll turn that back over to the superintendent here too, but I don't think that that information is available right now. Go ahead, superintendent.
Mark Bruley (21:04):
Mark Bruley, Police Chief, Brooklyn Park. The question is how long did we know that he was there. A vehicle that we believe that he was in was spotted many hours before and had been abandoned. An alert police officer believed that he may have seen the individual running into the woods and that started at large-scale perimeter that we set up or down in Sibley County set up, and we started to deploy resources including the Brooklyn Park SWAT team and along with many other SWAT teams to contain an extremely large area knowing that this is a very dangerous individual.
(21:38)
During that, we got privy to additional information of an individual that was in the woods, and that search went on for many hours until ultimately we were able to locate him in the woods. In approximately an hour and a half or so, we were able to close the distance in with the technology and the State Patrol helicopter and where we were able to call him out to us.
Speaker 17 (21:57):
Hi, [inaudible 00:22:00] ABC News. Do you know more about the motive or are you guys treating it as an act of domestic terrorism?
Mark Bruley (22:05):
Yeah, it's absolutely way too soon to say that right now. That's where the investigation, we have been just solely focused on the manhunt and the goal was is to give some calm to the situation of many individuals that were on the list that were worried about their safety. And this is a very dangerous individual for our community, and that's why so many resources and such a great collaboration came together to focus on removing him from society so that we can restore some sort of calm and bring some healing to our community, into our state. Now begins the hard work of looking at what the motive is, looking at putting this case together and so that's yet to come.
Speaker 18 (22:41):
For the people that were on the list, I know there were from Wisconsin on this. What other states have [inaudible 00:22:52]
Mark Bruley (22:51):
It was multiple states. I don't have the exhaustive list, but it was multiple states running it.
Speaker 18 (22:56):
Do you have some states that are on the list?
Drew Evans (23:01):
There's a few, I don't want to say it 'cause it won't be exhaustive, but Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, some others that were on there. There was a variety in Nebraska, Iowa, we've had contact.
(23:13)
What I will tell you and I will not get into any more specifics beyond that, we are in coordination with our federal partners and our fusion centers in those states to coordinate with local law enforcement and the FBI in those states and the state fusion centers that are there to be able to provide that information and notify those individuals that they were on that list too.
Speaker 19 (23:34):
Are you concerned that there's other people out there that could have been working with them?
Drew Evans (23:38):
The question is, are we concerned there's other people out there that could be working with them? We will fully explore that. I've said on this, we are relatively confident, we are confident that the violence that he committed and the murders he committed and the attempted murders that he conducted that activity alone. We will be exploring if there are any broader network. We have not uncovered any of that at this time, but that will be part of our investigation and we will fully explore that.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
Thank you.
Drew Evans (24:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 20 (24:08):
[inaudible 00:24:08]
Speaker 6 (24:08):
Thanks chief.
Speaker 20 (24:08):
[Inaudible 00:24:08]
Speaker 6 (24:09):
Thanks. Thank you. We can go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone.
