As Vance Boelter sits in a Sherburne County jail cell awaiting his fate, investigators are digging into the details of the assassination of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark.
"The why is not - we're still working on the why I guess I would say."
That's acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson telling WCCO Radio's Chad Hartman that even if they figure out the "why," it's likely that explanation will never make sense.
"You know, there's no good explanation for murdering politicians, and targeting politicians," he adds.
As far as the potential of other people being involved?
"The real questions are the why, why did he do this, and was anyone else involved? So, we have been investigating around the clock to answer those questions," Thompson said. Was anyone else involved? And if so, who?"
Thompson says the next step is for a grand jury to return an indictment, which is due by mid-July, and could include additional charges. Boelter would then return to court for an arraignment, which is when he’d be expected to enter a plea.
Thompson says that investigators are focusing on getting a first degree murder indictment which could come with a death penalty sentence on those federal charges.
"I don't know that there'll be satisfactory explanations for why this happened," says Thompson. "It's, you know, there's no good explanation for murdering politicians and targeting politicians like Boelter did. But those are the questions that we're trying to answer, and not only bringing him to justice and prosecuting him and convicting him, but also providing some measure of sunlight and explanation. Answering the public's questions, which are understandable."
No new court date has been set as of yet.