New details have emerged about the events leading up to the arrest of the suspect in the assassination of a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota.
Police arrested 57-year-old Vance Boelter following a manhunt that started before dawn Saturday, when he allegedly shot and killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, at their Brooklyn Park home, and he is also accused of shooting and wounding state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at their home in Champlin.
"This specific field behind me is where authorities and a witness have now told us he was arrested last night," said NBC News Maggie Vespa. "You can see this tall grass behind me. We just spoke to a woman who was visiting a friend in that house back there, that little white house, saying that as she was driving along the driveway here, over to my left, she saw someone in all black, first walking by themselves and then ducking down into the grass and not moving, and this woman said, she told us that she thought to herself at first, 'Oh, that must be law enforcement searching the property,' and then she realized, number one, there are no cars around. Number two, he's by himself. Wouldn't they be searching in large groups?"
"She said, that's when it really hit: 'Oh my God, this could be him,'" Vespa continued, "and she told us she sped in her little pickup truck to the nearest roadblock and told police, 'He's down there, he's in the grass – you've got to go get him', she said. At that point, roughly 20 law enforcement cars sped this direction. Police told us last night after they got a crucial tip. We can assume it was this one."
"They set up a large-scale perimeter around the suspect, and they were able to eventually get him," she added, "and they said at one point crawl to them as he peacefully surrendered. Now that detail makes sense, seeing that he would have had to come through this grass. So that's the story of last night."
Watch the video below or at this link.