Suspect arrested in Boston Scientific exec’s death
Published 12:36 pm Thursday, September 11, 2014
MINNEAPOLIS — A man suspected of shooting his former boyfriend and business partner at a suburban gas station, sparking several massive manhunts during weeks on the loose, was arrested Thursday in Shakopee without incident.
Lyle “Ty” Hoffman was arrested near an Arby’s in the Southbridge Crossing Shopping Center by police who had been summoned to check a report of a suspicious man, Shakopee Police Chief Jeff Tate said in a statement.
Hoffman is charged with one count of intentional second-degree murder in the Aug. 11 shooting death of Kelly Phillips, an attorney and a vice president for the medical device company Boston Scientific.
Hoffman had been the subject of several massive searches in the Minneapolis area in the weeks since, including two around the Anoka County airport in Blaine and one around the Mystic Lake Casino south of Shakopee. He also was suspected of a bank robbery in the weeks following the shooting, at the TCF Bank in Blaine on Aug. 30.
Phillips owned Lush nightclub, a gay bar in Minneapolis, that he had opened with Hoffman in 2009. While Hoffman worked at the bar, Phillips’ involvement was primarily financial.
Friends and family have said that their personal and business lives had grown strained. Hoffman had been fired from the bar and Phillips evicted him from a residence he owned across from the club. Phillips had also been preparing to marry another man.
A reward for Hoffman had been raised to $40,000 on Wednesday, just a day before his arrest.
