MINNEAPOLIS — By all accounts, Vance Boelter knew his way around guns and expressed an interest in them at a young age.

Federal prosecutors say Boelter, charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the shootings of two state legislators and their spouses in their Twin Cities homes, fled immediate capture early Saturday and left behind in his SUV semi-automatic “assault-style” rifles among five guns in all.

Also in the SUV, decked out to resemble a police vehicle, were “a large quantity of ammunition organized into loaded magazines,” read the federal criminal complaint against the Green Isle husband and father.

And there was a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun and at least three magazines strewn about the ground a few blocks from where State Rep. Melissa Hortman and husband Mark were fatally shot in their Brooklyn Park residence.

At the time of his arrest late Sunday, according to law enforcement, Boelter had a gun on him of an unspecified type.

There is no law banning what the 57-year-old Boelter allegedly accumulated in weaponry over the years dating back to at least 2000, given his criminal history up to this week had been nonexistent beyond a speeding ticket and a handful of parking violations.

Also, court records in Minnesota don’t show that he was the subject of an Extreme Risk Protection Order, also known as a “red flag” law. Enacted in January 2024, the order allows law enforcement or family members to petition courts to temporarily remove firearms from individuals at risk of harming themselves or others.

Possessing one or more guns in public as Boelter allegedly did is allowed if the person has and can present a state-issued permit to carry. The identities of permit holders are not publicly available, and in Boelter’s case has not been addressed by any level of law enforcement since he was identified as the suspected shooter.

Rob Doar, senior vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus and a gun rights advocate, reviewed photos of weapons in the federal criminal complaint against Boelter and saw what appear to be semi-automatic “civilian-legal” variants.

“Whether purchased through a dealer or private party,” Doar said, “their acquisition in Minnesota would have required either a permit to purchase or carry and compliance with state and federal transfer regulations.”

Charges in Hennepin County District Court that noted Boelter “is the listed purchaser for at least four of the recovered firearms.”

Dan Carlson, Boelter’s Minneapolis roommate a few days a week and a friend since grade school in Sleepy Eye, Minn., said the two of them “thought guns and weapons were cool. As children, we were like that, and it kind of stuck with us.”

Carlson said he saw that Boelter had a few guns and “was kind of like the gun type. I didn’t think they were automatic ones.”

Boelter’s interest and possession of guns were not worrisome, Carlson said.

“I thought Vance was so incapable of using those weapons on people,” he said. “I trusted him so much that I lived with him. The weapons I saw were normal weapons, a couple handguns. I know he went to the shooting range.”

Kipp Trebesch Jr., president of the Green Isle Sportsman’s club, said he checked both records and cameras, and Boulter had never visited there.

“It’s a small community,” he said of Green Isle. “Everybody knows everybody, but I can’t say anybody’s actually really ever talked to the guy.”

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—Deena Winter, Louis Krauss and Anna Sago of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.

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