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AP: Suspect in Minnesota Lawmaker Shootings Caught; Multiple Locations Hit, Residential Buildings Struck, After Latest Iranian Strikes on Israel. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired June 15, 2025 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:00:35]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you here in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Brian Abel in Atlanta.

We are following breaking news this hour. The manhunt in Minnesota is now over. The Associated Press saying authorities have caught 57-year- old Vance Boelter, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a state representative and her husband. He's also been linked to a separate shooting that left a state senator and his wife wounded.

Whitney Wild is back with us in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the very latest. Whitney.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brian, what we know is that this comes after a nearly 48-hour manhunt. Law enforcement had worked with locals, the sheriffs, Minnesota State Police, a long list of federal law enforcement agencies to try to bring Vance Boelter into custody. And I want to take you to Sibley County, Minnesota, where the bulk of the activity happened today.

What we know is that earlier today, law enforcement had zeroed in on a car of interest and that his -- this hat that he had apparently put on following these shootings, it was a cowboy hat after he had put on civilian clothes following the shooting, was found nearby this vehicle. And what we saw was multiple law enforcement officers go through that vehicle and find what law enforcement later called pieces of evidence that were relevant to the investigation.

And then what we saw is old-school police work, people on the ground in a grid formation, fanning out from that vehicle, going through the fields nearby and the woods nearby.

We do not know yet, Brian, where he was taken into custody at what time and how. These are the questions we expect to hear from law enforcement in about 30 minutes or so when they give an update. But what we know is that one of the local sheriff's offices here has taken a photo of him, put it on their Facebook page and said, you know, as the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office said, that that was the face of evil. That was their Facebook post.

So, law enforcement now, you know, confirming in some capacity that he is now in custody. And that photo, which, you know, will resonate with so many people as one of the key photos here after this, just horrific 48 hours here in the metropolitan area surrounding Minneapolis, Brian.

ABEL: And we will certainly learn more information, whether the suspect was brought into custody without incident or not, and many other details here in the next 30 minutes. Whitney, we appreciate you staying on top of this all throughout the day, really.

Thank you.

Let's now bring in Ed Davis, former Boston Police Commissioner. And Ed, thank you for your time. Based on everything that's happened since first learning of these murders, what stands out to you the most?

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Hi, Brian. Well, I'm really happy that this ended up as it did. This is a very positive conclusion to a very dangerous situation. Other people could have been injured or killed. The suspect might have been killed or killed himself and not been brought to justice. So, this is extremely -- this is a good ending.

I think that what people have to realize is right now the biggest focus is on questioning the suspect. There will be an interrogation attempted. If he lawyers up, they might not get anything.

But you'd be surprised how many people in situations like this want to tell their story, want to get the information out. And I think as we try to prevent these things occurring in the past, trying to get to the bottom of why this happened and what was in his mind before he took the lives of these innocent people is -- is really an important part of this. It's not simply a confession or simply getting enough evidence for the prosecution, but it's trying to divine how this -- how this -- we came to this.

ABEL: Ed, thank you.

Let's go to Juliette Kayyem now. And Juliette, playing off of what Ed was just saying there with this idea of the suspect maybe, maybe not wanting to tell his story, we have that manifesto. We have the notebook that was found in that abandoned car. We also have the note left for the roommate that he read for a local reporter. What does that tell us about what he may or may not say moving forward here now that he's in custody?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yeah, it's hard to tell. He's -- what we know so far is not typical of what we've seen by some other sort of terrorists or ideological killers who really do want the performative aspects of this.

[23:05:10]

In fact, I thought it was interesting earlier today in the first press conference, or the press conference a couple of hours ago before they captured him, that the police officer wanted to clarify that it wasn't really a manifesto. It was just sort of a list of random things. So, we don't really know, and random names, we don't really know what that was.

He also doesn't have a typical radicalization trajectory, at least what we know right now. Not a huge social media profile, not a lot of hate. He doesn't seem to have encountered or gone after politicians in the past. He had very, very conservative and ideological opinions about certain things, but nothing that would lead to this kind of hunt, which is essentially what it was.

So, was there this triggering aspect with something going on in his life? So, he may be willing to share that simply as part of him wanting to get popularity, have people follow him, but he doesn't have, at least from what we can tell right now, he has not -- you know, he didn't videotape the killings. He didn't do some of the horrible stuff that we've seen in the past.

So, we'll see what he says. We certainly already know a lot, however. I mean, we know in terms of that list, in terms of how he tried to kill them, that he had every intention of continuing on in the -- in the days or hours immediately after the first killings.

ABEL: And now that we do know more information about him, about his past, whether -- however much of that is bluster versus reality with his security company, but with his evangelical outreach and other things of that nature, is there any sense that there could have or should have been some red flags around him before these killings?

KAYYEM: You know, as I said, this one will learn more. It's interesting. Normally by this time, we would have learned a lot about a suspect in terms of, oh, he was doing X, Y, and Z and the family members were getting nervous.

We haven't really seen that yet. It may be that he was in a very inclusive, insular group of people, of like-minded people who weren't likely to notify police. We simply don't know that at this stage, but those would be the things that one would be looking for.

We do know, at least from -- from what we've seen online and what he's provided online and what the police have provided, that he was an individual who was targeting Democrats in particular, there might be Republicans on that list, we haven't seen the list yet, and progressive causes in particular.

So, put all the politics aside, what you're just trying to figure out is what was that radicalization process like? Were there like-minded people surrounding him? Was he following certain contributors, certain high-profile thought leaders in the conservative space? Was he an adherent to a certain political party or political affiliation? All of that would be relevant simply to understand how did he come to this moment?

And as I was saying before the break, whatever your politics are, we certainly, as a country, can certainly see the damage that is being done as violence becomes part of our -- our political discourse and trolling, making fun of having -- just mean-spiritedness that you've seen, for example, as I said, out of Senator Mike Lee and others. It's just -- it may make -- it may make them feel good or something, but what we have to understand is that radicalization is not an on-off switch. People -- people are interpreting a lot of things or absorbing a lot of information from the public space, from their personal spaces that then leads to radicalization.

Whatever we can do individually and as politicians and as political leaders or commentators to try to lower that temperature, not contribute to it, maybe, maybe we can put this. I don't know if we can put the genie back in the bottle, but we can just try to understand the gravity of what is occurring in this country in terms of violence against public officials.

ABEL: And Juliette, thank you. Ed Davis, former Boston Police Commissioner, still with us. And Ed, I'd like you to walk us through what happens next now that they have caught him, because certainly you've been through this process before in your past career, especially in Boston.

[23:10:04]

DAVIS: Yes, thank you, Brian. I'll tell you that, as I mentioned, the interrogation is the most important part of this evening right now. They will be going through all of the steps to get a voluntary statement from him. If he refuses, they will have to attach some type of representation from the legal community to him.

But regardless of how that goes, the real work is being done now on the prosecution. So, there are district attorneys and possibly United States attorneys who are looking at all of the facts here and collaborating on what is the best way to handle this particular case. There are certainly components of this using fear, intimidation, and violence to affect public discourse and political aims, which moves us into the terrorism realm.

But even if they prosecute it as simply a state case, it's a capital murder case and, you know, extremely serious charges. So, the focus begins in earnest towards the prosecution. They'll continue to collect evidence.

It seems as though they've done search warrants at various locations, but it takes days to exploit electronic media that they're able to recover from those locations. They'll do another round of interrogations to his close friends and family and try to really determine whether or not there were other people involved in this, whether he had helped with his escape. And whether or not this is a more widespread conspiracy. But the good news is that the people who were on that list can rest a little easier tonight.

ABEL: Ed, I want to ask you something that's kind of twofold here, but it's the practical impacts of the crime in the first place. How does this impact the community, both because it happened, but also now that this suspect is caught, but also from the protection level for some of the individuals that were on those target lists? Because we know that Minority Leader Jeffries, as well as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has asked for increased protection for some of the senators and representatives.

DAVIS: Right, and there will be another round of reviews, just like there were after the shooting in Midtown Manhattan, where people really take a hard look at their security posture and what is appropriate to the threat level that they have. I work on cases like this every single day. Threats are part of my business.

And we're always trying to determine what rises to the level of criminal charges, what rises to the level of around the clock protection, what rises to the level of just being aware of your surroundings. And right now in the political sphere, this will be a major topic of conversation, but you can't protect everybody. There's just too many people that are potential victims.

And one of the things that's really troubling is I haven't seen anything that would indicate this guy was a major threat prior to this incident. Now, there may be things that police have that we don't know about just yet, but if you -- if you are looking for indicators, this guy's slightly, you know, a disaffected business person, but a member of the community, somebody who was active in religious circles, not your typical person who you would think would do something like this.

ABEL: And I imagine that because of that, the typical rules may not apply here. I do want to ask you about the psychological impact that this has to the community. You having gone through the Boston Marathon bombing, obviously very different in terms of scale this crime was, but some of that psychological damage is there in both cases, both instances. How does the community, the greater Minneapolis area, Minnesota area, how do they heal from this?

DAVIS: Well, it takes years. As a matter of fact, I'm stopped every day by people who still talk about what a devastating impact that incident had in Boston 11 years ago. So, right now, the city of Brooklyn Park and the whole state is living through a huge trauma that will take a long time to try to get under control.

They'll mourn for the people who have been victimized, but there's also a level of distrust that occurs in the back of everyone's head. They're looking at everyone in their social circle or people that they know or somebody that may have had difficulty with and wondering if they could be a target. And that's extremely unsettling.

[23:15:04]

The good news is this guy was -- was grabbed very quickly in -- in the -- in the sort of scope of what it takes to run somebody down who's in the wind like he was after the shooting. So, the police really did a great job in wrapping this up in record time.

ABEL: And Ed, you might've seen me give a thumbs up there. I was saying affirmative to a producer that was just in my ear that was telling me that we now have a photo of the moment that Vance Boelter was caught. Take a look here at this image.

It looks, based on what I can see, a Ramsey County Sheriff's office, but this appears to be out in the wild somewhere, maybe a field of some sort behind him. You see that green jacket there. Can you take anything away from this image alone?

DAVIS: Well, because of the delay, I can't see the images yet, but if it is as you described, I was wondering if this was a case of someone bumping into him in a populated area or a really solid area search with perimeters set up. And it sounds like it was the latter, that they caught him in the wild.

And I've been involved in searches like this in wooded areas and in farmland. It really does turn into a military operation because you are very easily seen as you work your way through the underbrush and the woods to find somebody by that person. And if that person is homicidal, this is more like a military operation. And you can see, now that I see the photo, that these are SWAT teams all decked out and trained in military tactics. And that's exactly what was needed in this situation. Thankfully, he didn't get a shot off at anybody and it looks like everybody's all right.

ABEL: Yeah, that is another confirmation for us here, right? Because until we hear from law enforcement or we see an image like this, there's no idea of just how this moment happened of the suspect going into custody, especially because of him shooting at officers the first time that he was approached by police.

Given all that we know now between that moment, between having survival gear, having a vest on, a bulletproof vest when he was committing these crimes allegedly, does that give you any sort of sense of his ability and desire to continue on if he was able to go undetected for much longer?

DAVIS: Well, it does. I mean, it proves that he spent some time thinking about this in my mind. But you wonder if these were just fantasies that he was having, or if he has any real practical knowledge.

The great news is looking at the offices and from the Sheriff's Department that are surrounding him, they have the latest night vision equipment. And so, these guys will go to ground during the day and then when nightfall comes, they feel a little safer moving around. And that may have led to his demise, both from the ground in the kit that these offices have that you can see in the photo.

As well as drones and helicopters with infrared and heat-seeking cameras. It's amazing what can be done technology-wise, complicated by the foliage and the leafy overhangs and things, but it doesn't seem as though this guy has the kind of knowledge that he would need to bypass what he needed, what was on top of him right now. This was intense and very well done.

ABEL: All right, Ed Davis, appreciate your expertise as always. Thank you, sir.

DAVIS: Thank you, sir.

ABEL: Now to the other breaking news we are following, in Israel, where at least three people have been killed in the latest round of missile strikes launched by Iran. Israel's National Emergency Service says multiple locations were hit Monday morning as the country continues to reel from this back-and-forth conflict.

CNN crews capturing video as strikes were heard around the Tel Aviv area along with warning sirens. Central Israel's power grid was also damaged. You see one of those missiles going in there. The latest of the back and forth strikes over the weekend, seen as Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv.

And Jeremy, what have you been able to gather here?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, we are at the scene of one of what seems to be four ballistic missile impacts in Israel overnight in just the last couple of hours. We're right here in central Tel Aviv. You can see behind me, this entire street is littered with debris.

Rescue personnel, military personnel are here on the streets searching through the rubble, also going apartment to apartment to make sure that nobody is trapped. We spoke to one woman earlier today who was indeed trapped in her apartment as a result of the power of this blast that was felt by people for several blocks away.

[23:20:07]

In fact, it took us a minute to actually find where the epicenter of this attack actually was because there was debris for so many blocks before this. As far as we understand it, one of these residential buildings behind me, you can't quite make it out from here, but it has partially collapsed. At least 10 people have been taken to hospital, but there is still a search ongoing to see whether or not there are any other victims that have yet to be actually recovered.

We also know at this hour that overnight there were powerful blasts in Haifa as well, that northern Israeli city, very close to a power plant there. And then just to the northeast of the city of Tel Aviv, where we are right now in Petah Tikva, another residential building that was struck.

The Magen David Adom, Israel's rescue services, say that at least 67 casualties have been reported at this hour from four different sites. And you can see this is still very much an active scene around us, with people arriving to try and assess the damage from their homes, trying to get inside their homes. This woman looks like she's carrying some kind of a pet carrier. And, you know, there are just people here trying to understand what is happening.

So, many folks in shock as this really is the worst violence that Tel Aviv has faced from missiles since at least the Gulf War in 1991, when the city was targeted by Scud missiles. But now things have taken on a very different proportion as we have seen at least 17 people have now been killed in just the last few days.

ABEL: And Jeremy, we kind of hear the chaos that's around you, people trying to figure out what's going on and what information that they can glean from the authorities that are behind you there. Based on your conversations with people on the ground so far, what kind of warning did they get? Were they able to get into shelter? What -- what was the situation for those that may not have survived?

DIAMOND: Well, there's no question that without the shelters that people were able to enter before this missile struck, we would be talking about a much, much deadlier scene. Every single person who survived this attack who we spoke to was in some kind of bomb shelter or underground shelter at the moment of impact. That's because a couple hours in fact before this missile struck, there was an early warning about a potential ballistic missile attack coming from Iran.

And then about a minute to a minute and a half before that missile actually struck, people heard those air raid sirens going off. And that's when they made sure they were inside those shelters. One of the women who we spoke to said that she could actually hear the whirring of that missile as it was coming in and then this enormous boom that shook this entire neighborhood.

We spoke to someone who was as far as, you know, two blocks away who said that they felt the power of that shockwave. And that's because we're talking about ballistic missiles that are carrying, you know, several hundred if not thousands of pounds of explosives on top of them coming from very far distances and striking at just an incredible velocity that is leaving craters in their wake. And in this case, a building partially destroyed.

ABEL: Jeremy Diamond, live for us in Tel Aviv. Jeremy, thank you. We'll have much more ahead. Stay with CNN.

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[23:27:22]

ABEL: The manhunt in Minnesota is now over. The Associated Press saying authorities have caught 57-year-old Vance Boelter, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a state representative and her husband. He's also been linked to a separate shooting that left a state senator and his wife wounded.

Let's bring back in Juliette Kayyem. And Juliette, we have this image here now of the suspect seemingly at the moment of capture, his hands behind his back. You have that rugged field jacket, as well as seeing the field behind him, and also the night gear that are on the special members there, whether they're SWAT or not sure exactly where they're from, what kind of unit. But what do you take away from this picture?

KAYYEM: Well, I mean, basically we just need the details now, which I think we're going to get in a few minutes at a press conference on the exact how. There were hints given in the last press conference that they knew he was in communication with people. There is reporting that he may have been near a property that he owned or had visited.

And so he may have been sloppier than we first thought when he got away so swiftly that first morning after those killings. And so we'll just find out sort of where he was and how the -- how the chase unfolded. Did he say anything when captured? Did he have -- you know, make a statement about motive? Did he -- did he keep quiet? And then of course, his legal rights will adhere to him relatively soon, and he will be afforded a lawyer if he chooses, and we'll determine if he is willing to speak to the police in particular about the means by which he acquired all this -- all this information. And then why -- let me go back. We know the why, the sort of order. That to me is very interesting. It's just sort of why did he start at this local -- very localized letter? He had lots of senior Democrats on the list. Did he know them? Had he encountered them?

We know he had ties to the states and how long did his focus, did he focus on them in terms of, he knew where they lived, he knew they'd be home those nights. All of that, however, grotesque in many ways because we simply know how it ended, is important to have an understanding of did others know?

How do we better protect public officials and all the things that we have to do in order to ensure that violence -- that none of this is normalized, none of it is -- is made, you know, casual or it's just sort of a part of the way things are. That's not -- that's not how we should be responding.

[23:30:17]

Every case like this needs to be condemned by everyone. No ifs, no qualifications, no ands, anything, because it is a part of our democracy now that -- that there's no end to unless we begin to really think about what happened to these victims.

They were -- they were, I mean I loved reading about them honestly. There's people like this all throughout the United States who commit their lives to their communities and, you know, get into positions of power and everyone loves them and they, you know, they adopt dogs and they support the softball league. I mean that's America, whatever your party is and -- and we have to remember that they are the victims and their families are the victims regardless of any ideology.

ABEL: We must keep the victims in the forefront of all of this as we discuss this. Ed Davis has been standing by as well, the former Boston Police Commissioner. And Ed, you mentioned earlier that the most important next step in this process is the interrogation. What kind of questions will those interrogators be asking?

DAVIS: Well, their first responsibility is to understand motive and get inculpatory statements from the suspect to further the -- to further the criminal prosecution. So, that will be the main focus of -- of their investigation. But believe me, profilers from the FBI and other psychologists and psychiatrists around the country that specialize in this type of work will be really curious and it's not lost on the investigators and interrogators that that is also an important line of questioning.

Now, if he shuts them down, that's done. But if he starts to talk a little bit about what was in his mind, what brought him to this, a lot of people need to justify their actions when they get arrested and they're sitting in an interrogation room. And if -- if the suspect does that, it can be a treasure trove of information on the criminal prosecution side, but also on the analytical side and the deep dive that will be done by people who study this type of horrible attack. ABEL: And as far as just from a logistical standpoint, Ed, where -- and forgive me if I end up interrupting you here as we are still waiting for that press conference and we'll go there as soon as that begins. But from a logistical standpoint, we see the field, we see him apprehended there. Where does he go from here, given the multiple jurisdiction of how everything has played out so far?

DAVIS: Well, he'll be taken to a local police station, whether it's a sheriff's office or a police agency, for the initial booking. So, a critical part of this, and it's pro forma, but photographs of the suspect need to be taken as part of the booking process. The suspect's fingerprints are obtained.

Depending on the state, there may be more biometric information taken. But he'll also be advised of his right to bail, his right to counsel, and all of the other Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights that attach to someone in his situation. And at that point in time, they'll turn him over to the investigators.

So, he'll face arraignment in some type of a court tomorrow, depending on where the charges have been filed, whether it's federal, state. And -- and we will soon see very, very serious charges lodged against this individual in a very official way tomorrow.

ABEL: All right, Ed Davis, I do want to see if you -- from taking a look at this image once again, and the facial expression, anything else that you're able to take away about the surrounding moments before he was captured? I'm trying to see there below his waistband and see maybe some mud, that could have just been from the initial get on the ground, unclear whether he was in deep woods, where he was at this point. But do you do you take away anything else from this image?

DAVIS: Well, he doesn't look too physically distraught or stressed. I don't think he was hiding in a hole somewhere. He was probably wandering around in the woods. I think, you know, so as to his physical appearance, he's no worse for the wear considering what's happened over the last 48 hours.

[23:35:05]

But I think it's ironic that you've got a man who has a religious background, staring up at the sky. And I wonder what he's thinking right now. And what his -- what his prospects are, you know, in this world and the next --

ABEL: All right, Ed, thank you to you as well as Juliette Kayyem. We will be right back after a quick break.

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[23:40:08]

ABEL: Our breaking news this hour, explosions and fires seen in Israel after a barrage of fresh Iranian missile strikes hit the country. Multiple locations were hit, including residential areas after the latest strikes. Emergency workers say at least three people have been killed in Israel by these latest Iranian strikes. That brings the death toll in Israel to 17, and it comes as both sides continue their assault on the other.

Israel carried out a series of strikes on Iran on Sunday. Iran's state-affiliated news agency confirmed an Israeli strike in Tehran on Sunday resulted in the deaths of two high-ranking officials, the intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and his deputy general. At least 224 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since Friday, according to Iran's Ministry of Health. More than 1,200 others have been injured in the strikes as well.

And to our other breaking news story, the manhunt in Minnesota is now over. These are live pictures in Blaine, Minnesota, where we are awaiting a press conference. We will bring you that as soon as it begins.

The Associated Press saying authorities have caught 57-year-old Vance Boelter, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a state representative and her husband. He is seen here. He's also been linked to a separate shooting that left a state senator and his wife wounded.

Let's bring back in Juliette Kayyem now, Senior National Security Analyst, as well as Ed Davis, the former Boston police commissioner. And Juliette, to you, I'm just curious what you make of both this image that you see here, the surroundings of where he was taken into custody, potentially, based on this image, as well as what happens next?

KAYYEM: So, the image is, you know, sort of a brief second that they've captured him. But a couple of things, he does not look, as Ed was saying earlier, does not look disheveled. He doesn't look like someone who was sort of survival -- you know, sort of a survivalist. He is -- he is standing upright. It doesn't look like he was under any physical stress. So, I'm very curious where he's been the last 48 hours in terms of that -- that image that we see.

I think more importantly, though, is, of course, he's not dead and he didn't kill anyone. So, what would -- what was the nature -- didn't kill anyone in the capture, excuse me. So, what was the nature of that capture? Was he running and then -- and then surrendered? Was he captured overhead by a drone and then realized that he had been caught? All of that is important just simply because there is now going to be a very serious prosecution against him for, we don't know all the exact charges, nor if they are just going to be state charges at this stage.

And so all of this information is necessary to focus on his means, what his motive was and his attempts to evade capture and whether anyone else was put in harm's way during that. So, all of that is relevant. Most important thing is he's captured.

He is going to be prosecuted and the focus as well on his radicalization, how he chose these people, what led someone who seemingly did not have a lot of --

ABEL: And we're going to be live now, Juliette Kayyem, forgive me, where we're still looks like we're getting a mic check and --

KAYYEM: That's fine.

ABEL: -- the spokesperson there is getting people set and ready. But while we wait for that, Ed, I want to go back to this protection element that we talked about earlier of the senators and everybody else having protection. Is that stopped now that this is over with?

DAVIS: They will have to take a look at each individual person, the writings of this guy and whether or not they're convinced that he doesn't have co-conspirators. So, there's a lot that goes into that. I would suspect that they will keep security on the people who were identified for a period of time until they have a really good sense of what's happening in the background here and that the threat may be over.

But when you have 60 people on a list with another list with maybe a dozen or two, it's just not enough police to handle that type of fixed post assignment that would provide the type of security that the president or someone who has executive protection would get. So, it's a very difficult, heavy lift.

ABEL: Do you feel at all that this was maybe a wakeup call for -- for not -- maybe the country as a whole as to where the political rhetoric and hatred and hyper-partisanship has gotten us here in the country?

[23:45:15]

DAVIS: Well, I think it's an ongoing thing. I don't think this particular incident is unique. Going back eight years to when Congressman Scalise was shot in Washington, you've got the attack on the governor's house in Pennsylvania. You've got the two attacks on President Trump. This has been on a slow, rolling boil for a decade. And I think we have to stop looking at it as individual issues and look at the larger threat and make sure we have systems in place to try to take some of the air out of this balloon.

ABEL: And we are getting some reaction from the Minnesota -- the current Minnesota House Speaker, Lisa Demuth, in a statement saying, I'm grateful this nightmare has come to an end. Of course, one of the victims, a former state House Speaker, Melissa Hortman, as well as Senator John Hoffman, who has survived in surgery. What happens next with the state legislature there in Minnesota? Because obviously, this is a huge, huge impact for them. Devastating impact.

DAVIS: Well, they need time to mourn, and they need time to get themselves understanding what happened here. And a lot of that will come in the next hours and days as we learn more about this individual. But I've been contacted by political figures just in the last two hours, and I don't have good answers for them. I can't say that if we do A, B, and C, we'll be able to mitigate this. We have a badly divided country. We have a lot of guns out there.

ABEL: All right. And Ed, forgive me. We're going to go to the press right now, as Governor Walz is at the podium. GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): Good evening. After a two-day manhunt, two sleepless nights, law enforcement have apprehended Vance Boelter. 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.

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.

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.

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.

To Melissa and Mark's family, you 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.

The latest news is Senator Hoffman came out of final surgery and is moving towards that, towards recovery. Yvette 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.

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.

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.

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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. 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. 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 in a memorial. Conducting ourselves in the spirit that Melissa Hortman did her work is what the country needs to heal.

I will once again say the deep debt of gratitude. These professionals standing behind us and countless others, this was, you'll hear from them, incredibly complex. And to take this suspect in with no life 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.

BOB JACOBSON, MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSIONER: 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.

First of all, I want to thank all 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.

Boelter 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.

With that, I will pass this off to Superintendent Drew Evans of the BCA. Thank you.

DREW EVANS, SUPERINTENDENT, MINNESOTA BUREAU OF CRIMINAL APPREHENSION: Well, good evening everyone. My name is Drew Evans. I'm Superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

As was noted and was previously described, Vance Boelter 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. 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 is held accountable for his crimes.

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.

The Brooklyn Park Police Department, the Tri-City SWAT Team, Eagan Police Department, Burnsville Police Administration, our South Metro SWAT Team, the FBI, ATF, United States Marshal 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, Green Isle Fire Department and Life Link in the area in addition to prior Lake Crow 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.

I share all 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.

[23:55:12]

He was arrested as you saw earlier this evening in the area of 35-600 block, 35-600 block of 200 Street Green Isle. What happened in that is as we noted there was a manhunt going on throughout the day in that area that we've discussed previously and there was information provided that he was seen in the area. 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 getting into custody in a little bit but he was taken into custody at that time.

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 will be moving forward.

We are 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 level related to this at this time.

There's 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.

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?

CHIEF MARK BRULEY, BROOKLYN PARK, MINNESOTA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Good evening. I'm Police Chief Mark Bruley, Brooklyn Park Police Department. I just have a few comments. One, I'm very proud to tell you that we took the suspect into custody who is 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.

Just down at the scene where he was taken to custody, there was 20 different SWAT teams over an 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. Essentially the Brooklyn Park Police Department was turned over into an operation 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 that if there's evidence, information or other things, please continue to feed that information to the 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.

LT. COL. JEREMY GEIGER, MINNESOTA STATE PATROL, ASSISTANT CHIEF: Good evening everyone. My name is Jeremy Geiger. I'm the Lieutenant Colonel with the Minnesota State Patrol, the Assistant Chief.

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. We had special response teams on the scene near 200 streets in Sibley County.

Several partner law enforcement squad 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.

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.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With that we will open it up for a few questions. Reminder, please introduce yourself, your lead organization. If you have a question for one of the specific individuals, please feel free to point that out as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF MIC) NBC News. Can I ask anyone up here to speak to it? Did the suspect make any key mistakes that you feel like led to his mental health?

EVANS: You know, the question is, were there any key mistakes?