The Minnesota Suspect’s Radical Spiritual World
“Minnesota authorities said that they’d found ‘voluminous writings’ in the suspect’s vehicle and at his home, and that he’d kept a notebook that mentioned about 70 potential targets, including politicians, civic leaders, and Planned Parenthood centers. Boelter is now facing federal murder charges for the fatal shooting of State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. State prosecutors have also charged Boelter with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder for allegedly shooting and wounding State Senator John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. If Boelter’s beliefs were a factor in the shootings, the question is not exactly what radicalized him, Frederick Clarkson, a senior analyst with Political Research Associates who has been tracking the NAR movement for years, told me: The worldview that Boelter appeared to embrace was radical, he said.
‘Everyone brings faith to their life and the things they do—the question is, in what ways does your faith inform your actions and your decision making?” he told me. “Without knowing exactly what motivated the shooter, we can say that being oriented into this kind of NAR thinking, to my mind, it’s just a matter of time before an individual or group of individuals take some kind of action against the enemies of God and the demons in their midst.’”