The man suspected of shooting dead two Minnesota lawmakers, and injuring others, has complained to a judge over the treatment he’s received in jail, saying he hasn’t slept for weeks.
Vance Boelter, a 57-year-old Minnesota man who disguised himself as a police officer, fatally shot Democratic State House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their Minneapolis-area home in the early morning hours of June 14, federal prosecutors claim.
He is also accused of the attempted murders of Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, after shooting them in their nearby home before making his way over to the Hortmans’ home, according to prosecutors.
After a two-day manhunt, Boelter was arrested near his rural home, and he now faces both state and federal charges.
Boelter appeared in federal court Friday for a bond and preliminary hearing.
But he and his lawyer, Manvir Atwal, asked the judge for a delay citing the conditions and treatment he’s been receiving in jail, The Washington Post reported.
Atwal said Boelter was placed on suicide watch at the Sherberne County Jail. He has been living in a cell with only a mat and a pillow, and the lights have been on all day and night, Atwal claimed.
The lawyer also mentioned another inmate in Boelter’s unit had constantly been spreading feces on the wall.
Boelter told the judge he hadn’t slept for 12 or14 days and that he’d “appreciate the extension so I can get some sleep.”
Atwal urged the jail to take her client off suicide watch and instead to put him in solitary confinement.
Boelter told the judge he’s “never been suicidal, and I am not suicidal now.”
David Carlson, a long-time friend of Boelter, previously speculated about his suspected mental state.
“He’s been kind of down. He was not as upbeat as he usually is,” Carlson was quoted as saying in a June 16 article from The Minnesota Star Tribune.
The judge has postponed the hearing until July 3.
Boelter’s wife said in a statement through her lawyer on Thursday she and her family are “appalled and horrified” by the shootings.
“We are absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided. This violence does not at all align with our beliefs as a family. It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith,” she said.
Authorities called the shootings “politically-motivated.”
Federal prosecutors said police found handwritten notes in Boelter’s car with the names of dozens of Minnesota state and federal elected officials, which included some of their home addresses.
Also on Friday, Hortman, alongside her husband and their beloved dog, Gilbert — who was badly injured in the shooting and had to be put down — lay in state as the public honored the family.
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