Suspect in Minnesota Attacks Was a Prepper, Investigator Says

The man accused of fatally shooting a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband last weekend had given his wife instructions for a “bailout plan” in the event the family ever needed to flee suddenly, according to an F.B.I. agent.

In an affidavit unsealed on Friday, the agent, Terry Getsch, said that the man charged in the shootings, Vance Boelter, and his wife were “preppers,” a term referring to people who believe a catastrophic event is imminent and go to great lengths to prepare for its arrival.

Hours after the attacks early Saturday morning — which killed the state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and wounded the state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette — Mr. Boelter sent a text message to his wife and children, according to the court document.

“The text stated something to the effect of they should prepare for war, they needed to get out of the house and people with guns may be showing up to the house,” Mr. Getsch wrote.

The Hortman killings were part of what authorities said was Mr. Boelter’s broader plot to assassinate politicians. And at some point before the shootings, the agent said, Mr. Boelter had given his wife a plan to follow in the event of “exigent circumstances.” Part of that plan entailed traveling to his mother-in-law’s residence in Spring Brook, Wis., roughly 75 miles from Minneapolis.

Mr. Boelter’s wife, Jenny, has not been charged with any crime, and the new court filing does not suggest that she and their children knew about a plot to kill politicians.