Audio of Emergency Dispatch Calls Reveals Harrowing New Details About Minnesota Lawmaker Shootings

Audio of emergency dispatch calls from the attacks on Minnesota lawmakers Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman and their spouses has been released.

In the audio files, obtained by TMZ, dispatchers can be heard describing the extent of the injuries sustained by the victims at both residences.

In a call made from state Sen. Hoffman’s Champlin home, dispatchers stated that Hoffman appeared to have been shot once in the elbow and once in the abdomen, and that he had “bleeding going on in his stomach” and that it was “very distended.” 

The dispatchers also said there was a female victim in the home and she had sustained three gunshot wounds, two to her abdomen and one to her arm.

In a second audio clip obtained by TMZ, medical dispatchers at state Rep. Hortman’s Brooklyn Park home can be heard stating that one victim was going into cardiac arrest and that another had died before they arrived.

They also stated that it appeared as though the shooter had barricaded himself inside the home.

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In a press conference on June 14, authorities said they had exchanged gunfire with the suspect at Hortman’s home before he escaped on foot. The suspect, whom police said had imitated a police officer, is still at large.

Officials later identified the suspect as 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter during an afternoon press conference on June 14. Authorities asked for the public’s assistance in helping to locate the suspect, stating that he was last seen “wearing a light-colored cowboy hat with a dark-colored long-sleeve collared shirt or coat, light pants and carrying a dark bag.”

They added that Boelter should be considered “armed and dangerous.”

PEOPLE reached out to the Brooklyn Park Police Department for comment on June 14 but did not receive an immediate response.

Hortman, 55, the former Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and her husband, Mark, were killed in the attack, which took place in the early hours of June 14.  

Hoffman, 60, and his wife, Yvette, survived the shootings and were taken to a local hospital, where they underwent surgery and are still being treated.

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Police were first alerted to the attack that took place at the Hoffman residence at around 2 a.m. local time, Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said in a June 14 press conference. 

Authorities then “proactively” checked on Hortman. There, they encountered the suspect, who “immediately” fired at them, Evans said, adding, “The individual was able to escape during that exchange of gunfire.”