Vance Boelter, the 57-year-old man accused of assassinating Sen. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, on Saturday, had been reappointed to the same board as Hortman by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in 2019.
Boelter was first appointed to Minnesota's Workforce Development Advisory Board in 2016 by then-Gov. Mark Dayton, Star Tribune reported. The board, composed of about 60 members from various industries across the state, receives hundreds of applications. Its members are not required to have political affiliations and do not have direct access to the governor. Their role is limited to making policy recommendations to Governor Walz and the Legislature.
Steve Kalina, a small manufacturing business owner in Minnesota who has been on the board since 2019, told Star Tribune he is on the opposite end of the political spectrum from Walz, but he, like other members, are appointed to represent the views of industry. He added that attacking Walz is a "shameless way of attacking the governor at a time we should be mourning the leaders of our state."
"It's goofy to make those stretches that the suspect was a close tie to the governor, a close appointee," Kalina added.
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said Saturday that there was "certainly some overlap in public meetings" between Hortman and Boelter, but law enforcement remains unsure of the nature of their relationship or whether they knew each other personally.
In addition to killing Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Boelter allegedly shot Senator John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, at their home the same evening. They were shot a total of 18 times but are both expected to survive, according to KARE11.
A two-day manhunt resulted in Boelter's arrest Sunday evening.
Originally published on Latin Times
