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.

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

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.

New details about Vance Boelter, accused of fatally shooting a state lawmaker and her husband, were revealed in court documents.

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.

There are chilling new details about Vance Boelter’s attack on Minnesota lawmakers and their families. A new timeline of events reveals the 57-year-old tried to do even more damage. Federal prosecutors say he stopped at the homes of four lawmakers early Saturday morning with the intent to kill them.

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’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.