Vance Boelter, the man accused of murdering Democratic Minnesota State Representative and shooting of State Senator on Sunday, gained the addresses of his victims and other alleged goals by using information collected by online data brokers, According to court documents obtained from politico.
According to the report, police found the names of 11 registered data brokers written in a notebook, which was recovered from Boelter’s vehicle. He also reportedly wrote, “Most property records in the United States are public” in the notebook. It was previously reported that police found a list of other state and federal lawmakers in their truck, along with their addresses. It seems that these data brokers – who collect and sell personal information including addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and potential relatives – were probably used by Boelter to identify the homes of their victims and other possible goals.
“Boelter stole his victims as a prey,” acting US lawyer Joseph Thompson pleaded at a press conference on Monday. “He explored his victims and their families. He used the Internet and other tools to find his addresses and names, the names of their family members.” During the conference, Thompson also indicated that Boelter had taken out the homes of his victims and investigated them before allegedly carrying out his attack. Boelter has been charged with six counts, including multiple counts of a second-degree murder, per wired.
In response to the revelation that Boelter reportedly used data brokers to target and ultimately murder Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman, two US senators pleaded for a renewed effort to regulate the companies. “I have long recommended data privacy for everyone, including lawmakers’ dwellings, and I have encountered resistance in the past. Maybe these terrible murders will change the feeling in Congress,” Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar told Politico.
Klobuchar sponsored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which would have allowed federal officials to remove their personal information from online databases. That amendment that failed to pass would probably not protect the Hortman family, as it did not include protections for state-level lawmakers. Likewise, it would not have protected abortion suppliers who were also reportedly mentioned In Boetler’s successful list.
Oregon’s Senator Ron Wyden also spoke against the availability of personal information sold from data sheets, and he is reportedly working on legislation to address it, For a politician. “Congress does not need more proof that people are killed based on data sold to anyone with a credit card. Every security of every American risks until Congress breaks this lazy industry,” Wyden said in a statement to politicians.
The seemingly politically motivated murder supposedly committed by Boelter is not the first instance of data brokers used to facilitate attack. In 2020, an attacker showed at the home of a district judge Esther Salas and opened fire on her son and husband, killing the son. The alleged killer was also reportedly reportedly Targeting Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In response to the attack, congress approved law Prohibiting data brokers from reselling the personally identifiable information of federal judges. But these protections do not extend to lawmakers, nor to private citizens, who are also possible victims of stealing, abuse and violence, without the titles to accompany it or raise alarm bells.
