Alleged Shooter Found Minnesota Lawmakers’ Addresses Online, Court Docs Say

A man accused of shooting two Minnesota Democrats at their homes over the weekend allegedly found their addresses online, prompting some lawmakers to renew calls for tighter oversight on how people's personal information is shared online.

Court documents unsealed Monday alleged Vance Boelter, 57, used online people search services to find the home addresses of his intended targets. Police found the names of 11 registered data brokers — or companies that gather and sell people’s information, including addresses, emails and phone numbers — in Boelter’s abandoned car after the shootings. Police also found a list of dozens of state and federal lawmakers, and their addresses, according to the criminal complaint.

Boelter is accused of shooting and killing state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband at their home on Saturday, and shooting and injuring state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife.

“Boelter planned his attack carefully. He researched his victims and their families. He used the internet and other tools to find their addresses and names, the names of their family members,” acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said at a press conference on Monday.

He is charged with six counts in total, for murder, stalking and firearms offenses, according to court documents.

A notebook allegedly in Boelter’s car listed 11 businesses that offer this service, according to the affidavit. Boelter also appeared to have preferences, putting a star next to one specific site, according to court documents.

Many of these people-search websites use publicly available information, such as property records, to collect and sell millions of Americans’ addresses. In the notebook, Boelter allegedly wrote “most property records in America are public,” according to the affidavit.

None of the companies listed in the court documents responded to a request for comment.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said she was among the many Minnesota lawmakers targeted by Boelter. She introduced a proposal in 2023 to give federal lawmakers the right to prevent their personal information from being sold online with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas.). The proposed bill, which was offered as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, did not pass.

“I have long advocated for data privacy for everyone, including the residences of lawmakers, and I have encountered resistance in the past. Maybe these horrific murders will change the sentiment within Congress,” Klobuchar said in a statement to POLITICO.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a privacy hawk in Congress, is also working on legislation to address this threat, a staffer for the senator said.

“Congress doesn't need any more proof that people are being killed based on data for sale to anyone with a credit card. Every single American's safety is at risk until Congress cracks down on this sleazy industry," Wyden said in a statement.

The use of publicly available records for violence has been an ongoing concern among government workers and public officials.

In 2020, a gunman used online services to find the home address of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, who then showed up at her New Jersey home and killed her son and shot her husband.

Congress responded by passing Daniel’s Law in 2022, which restricts companies from reselling federal judges’ personally identifiable information. Multiple states have passed similar laws to protect law enforcement officials’ information from being sold on such websites, but the protections do not extend to elected officials.

“Many data brokers, and in particular people search websites, have enabled horrific violence for decades by aggregating and selling data on people and their families, searchable by name, for dollars or cents,” Justin Sherman, a scholar in residence at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said.