(GREEN ISLE, Minn.) — Wendy Thomas was on the phone with her father when she saw someone in a field in Green Isle, Minnesota, on Sunday night.
Thomas watched as the person reached a culvert and squatted, she told Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP.
“I was like, ‘Dad, that’s somebody,'” she told the outlet. “He said, ‘Hang up and call somebody.'”
Moments later, Thomas was flagging down a member of law enforcement, she said, and telling them about the man she’d seen out by the culvert. What followed was the arrest of the suspected Minnesota gunman, Vance Boelter, whom local, state and federal law enforcement had been trying to locate for about 43 hours.
Boelter is accused of killing Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and wounding Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in “political assassinations,” acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph Thompson said.
Boelter allegedly showed up to their doors in the middle of the night early Saturday impersonating a police officer and wearing a realistic-looking mask, officials said, noting that two other lawmakers were spared the night of the shootings.
Boelter allegedly surveilled his victims’ homes and took notes, Thompson said. In a search of a home in north Minneapolis tied to Boelter, authorities seized a list of public officials that had a notation under Melissa Hortman’s name reading, “married Mark 2 children 11th term,” according to the affidavit. Another notebook included an added notation next to Melissa Hortman’s name reading, “Big house off golf course 2 ways in to watch from one spot,” the affidavit said.
He “stalked his victims like prey” and “shot them in cold blood,” Thompson said.
Boelter is facing federal charges including stalking and firearms charges and state charges including first-degree murder, officials said. He made a brief appearance in federal court on Monday.
A motive remains under investigation. But Minnesota state Sen. Scott Dribble, who worked with Hortman, told ABC News on Monday that he was “very concerned about the nature of the rhetoric that’s occurring with politics, especially among right-wing extremists.”
Dribble pointed to what he saw as a change in recent years for “those at the highest levels to engage in rhetoric of dehumanization, politicizing instruments of government, politicizing our military, and really calling for a violent response rather than really having vigorous policy debates.”
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said “every elected official of every stripe and party has to turn down the temperature.” Elected representatives and government staffers should in difficult times be displaying their “humanity” and reaching across the aisle, Flanagan told ABC News on Monday.
“Our community, our families, you know, taking care of each other, stepping up for one another. And that needs to continue to be the message during this time of divisive rhetoric,” she said.
“The way our nation moves forward is not through hate. It is not through violence,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz added in a statement Monday. “It is through humility, and grace, and compassion.”
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump refused to call Walz, who ran alongside Kamala Harris last November, to offer condolences.
“I don’t want to call him,” Trump said. “I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him. Why would I call him? I could call and say, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ Uh, the guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. I could be nice and call, but why waste time?”
Walz’s spokesperson said in response, “Governor Walz wishes that President Trump would be a President for all Americans, but this tragedy isn’t about Trump or Walz. It’s about the Hortman family, the Hoffman family, and the State of Minnesota, and the Governor remains focused on helping all three heal.”
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday received a briefing focused on member safety after it was revealed that a number of members of Congress were included on Boelter’s alleged lists of potential targets — but lawmakers were tight-lipped on the safety details.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn. — who was on the suspect’s list, according to law enforcement sources — said, “I think it’s important for member safety that we don’t talk a lot about what is being done to keep us safe in order to keep us safe.”
Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said there’s a bipartisan push for additional funding to be appropriated for member safety.
“The violence, the threats, against elected officials including people in the Senate has dramatically increased, and that means we need more protection, more money,” Schumer said.
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Katherine Faulders, Mike Levine, Alexander Mallin and Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.
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