(RNS) — Vance Boelter, the man being sought in the killing of a Minnesota state legislator and her husband and the shooting of a state senator and his wife on Saturday (June 14), is an ordained missionary who has preached in Congo in recent years.
In a post on X, the FBI identified Boelter, 57, as a suspect in the killing of Rep. Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and Mark Hortman at their home in Champlin, a suburb of Minneapolis. The suspect, who had impersonated an officer to gain entry to the Hortmans’ home, was still at the crime scene when police officers arrived, but he escaped after an exchange of fire.
Earlier, the suspect had shot and wounded Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at their home.
Boelter identified himself on LinkedIn and other websites as the CEO and president of two security services companies, Praetorian Guard Security Services and Red Lion Group, the latter based in Congo, in western Africa. On his LinkedIn page, which shows that he worked as a general manager at 7-11 in Minneapolis until 2021, he lists himself as open to work.
But in a video dated February 2023, Boelter is seen preaching at La Borne Matadi, an evangelical church in Matadi, near the southern border in Congo. In one sermon he tells the audience that “people don’t know what sex they are” because the devil “has gotten so far into their mind and their soul.”
FBI poster of Vance Boelter. (Courtesy of FBI)
In another sermon at the c …