Suspected killer of Minnesota lawmaker caught after manhunt

US LAW enforcement officials in Minnesota caught the suspected killer of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband at the weekend, authorities said, ending a two-day manhunt.

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The suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, allegedly disguised himself as a police officer, then shot and killed Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark at their home.

Boelter was captured in Sibley County, a rural area about an hour southwest of the Minneapolis suburbs where the murders had occurred, police and state officials said.

“After (a) two-day manhunt, two sleepless nights, law enforcement have apprehended Vance Boelter,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz told a late-night news conference.

Police described the search as the “largest manhunt in (the state's) history”, with 20 SWAT teams and several agencies working to find him.

Jeremy Geiger, assistant chief of the Minnesota State Patrol, told reporters that Boelter had been “taken into custody without the use of force.”