Heavily armed and dressed in tactical armor with a silicone mask hiding his face and a police-style badge, Vance Boelter made a convincing police officer – so much so that a real police officer mistook him for a fellow cop.

Eric Rudolph hid in the North Carolina wilderness for years after he bombed Centennial Olympic Park, a gay nightclub, and two abortion clinics; Boelter lasted a mere weekend. Yet both men belong to the same lineage.

Wendy Thomas was driving her old Chevy pickup truck home from a friend’s house shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday. The sun was low over rural Sibley County, a place of woods, streams, fields and crops an hour’s drive southwest of Minneapolis.

St. Cloud State graduate Vance Boelter appeared in federal court Monday afternoon. He is assigned a public defender, citing financial woes.

After exchanging gunfire with alleged killer Vance Boelter, police searched his abandoned vehicle and found a chilling trove of weaponry and a list of names.

It was a proactive decision from an experienced officer that allowed police to first confront suspected shooter Vance Boelter, starting a exhaustive manhunt that would end 43 hour

A federal prosecutor said Vance Boelter went to the homes of four politicians in a deadly rampage in Minnesota on Saturday.

It’s scary,’’ Democratic state Sen. Ann Rest said — shortly after it was revealed that Boelter had allegedly shot and wounded another Minnesota senator and his wife before  parking near her home

He wounded Sen. John Hoffman and his wife but didn’t come into contact with the two other DFL legislators, investigators say.