Man who 'killed his ex-boyfriend' and spent a month on the run using Grindr to find shelter is caught at Arby's drive-through

• Lyle Hoffman, 44, is charged with murder in Minneapolis over the death of his former partner
  
• Victim Kelly Phillips, who owned the gay nightclub Lush, was shot in a gas station on August 11
  
• Hoffman, the victim's ex-boyfriend, had been on the run for a month
  

By Associated Press

Published: 14:09 EST, 11 September 2014 | Updated: 16:46 EST, 11 September 2014

A man accused of shooting his former boyfriend and business partner at a gas station outside Minneapolis was arrested after a month on a run Thursday when a concerned citizen saw him peering at the drive-thru fast-food menu on foot, police said.

Lyle 'Ty' Hoffman was arrested near an Arby's restaurant in Shakopee after police were summoned to check a report of a suspicious man, Shakopee Police Chief Jeff Tate said in a statement. He was arrested without incident.

'People get tired of running, and people are relieved to get caught,' Chief Deputy John Kirkwood, of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, told the Star Tribune.

Hoffman, 44, is charged with one count of intentional second-degree murder in the August 11 shooting death of Kelly Phillips, an attorney and a vice president for the medical device company Boston Scientific.

On the run: Lyle Hoffman was on the run for a month before police caught him at an Arby's parking lot just south of Minneapolis

Police found the fugitive at this at Arby's restaurant in Shakopee, Minnesota

Phillips was a respected gay-rights activist and upstanding citizen known for his charm and infectious smile.

'It really hasn’t set in yet,' the victim's mother, Judy Phillips, told WCCO after the capture.

'But I would imagine it would be some closure, not entirely because I don’t know if we’ll ever get over this. But we are awfully glad he is off the streets and that there’s no more harm done to anybody.'

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.

Cops said he may have been relying on social media to find shelter while on the run, evading capture by using Craiglist and other dating apps such as Grindr and Scruff.

He also was suspected of a bank robbery in the weeks following the shooting, at the TCF Bank in Blaine on Aug. 30.

Witnesses said Phillips had stopped at a gas station about two blocks from his office in Arden Hills when a BMW pulled in behind him.

Victim: Kelly Phillips, a well-respected attorney and gay-rights activist, was fatally shot on Aug. 11 in a Minneapolis parking lot

There was some yelling before the BMW driver shot Phillips three times, then got back into his car and sped off, witnesses said.

Phillips owned Lush nightclub, a gay bar in Minneapolis, that he 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.

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