Law enforcement's response to fatal shooting of state lawmakers raises questions
On June 14, state Sen. John Hoffman, 34, DFL, and Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL, along with their spouses, were shot in their respective homes. Hoffman and his wife were wounded, but survived, while Hortman and her husband were killed.
Despite knowing that a suspect — later identified as Vance Boelter — was impersonating an officer and had targeted a politician, law enforcement took 10 hours to alert lawmakers to the potential danger, according to MST.
Following the shooting that wounded Hoffman and his wife, a New Hope police officer who was self-dispatched to the home of state Sen. Ann Rest, DFL, allegedly came in contact with Boelter. According to MST, Boelter did not respond to requests from the officer, who then drove away to check on Rest. However, the officer's interaction with the suspect was not immediately reported, according to MST.
Additionally, the outlet alleges that Brooklyn Park police encountered the gunman at the Hortmans' home and saw him shoot Mark Hortman in the doorway before firing at the suspect. The gunman then went inside the home and additional gunfire was seen inside the house, according to MST.
MST also claims that some police officers and legislators were not fully aware of the threat for several hours.
Boelter was indicted on six federal charges in connection with the shootings, including the attempted shooting of Hope Hoffman. The maximum penalties for the charges include life in prison or death, according to the DOJ.
"Vance Boelter planned and carried out a night of terror that shook Minnesota to its core," Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said in a statement.
"He carried out targeted political assassinations the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota. We grieve with the Hortman family and continue to pray for the recovery of the Hoffmans. Today, a grand jury indicted Boelter with the most serious of federal charges for these heinous political assassinations. Let me be clear: Boelter will see justice."
Fox News Digital reached out to Brooklyn Park Police and New Hope Police outside of office hours and did not receive a response from either department in time for publication.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Two-time killer who targeted Calgary street sex workers to be sentenced
A Calgary man who's now killed two women who worked in the city's sex trade will be handed a life sentence today, 16 years after he strangled his first victim. Earlier this month, Christopher Dunlop, 50, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2023 death of Judy Maerz, 58. Dunlop had recently finished serving his 13-year manslaughter sentence for strangling Laura Furlan when he stabbed Maerz 79 times and then set her body on fire. At the time of her death, Maerz was living a vulnerable lifestyle. She struggled with drug addiction and poverty but had managed to secure an apartment. It was her first home in 12 years. The night she was killed, Maerz spent time with a friend before she headed out to the Forest Lawn stroll. In the early morning hours of Feb. 16, 2023, Dunlop picked her up, drove her to the Deerfoot Athletic Park and attacked her. After fatally stabbing Maerz and slitting her throat, Dunlop doused her body in gasoline and set it on fire. But while he attempted to destroy DNA evidence left on Maerz's body, Dunlop left some behind. The evidence presented at trial suggested Maerz "fought for her life," according to prosecutors Hyatt Mograbee and Greg Piper. In the course of the struggle, Dunlop cut his hand. His blood, left in the melting snow, ultimately led police to arrest the two-time killer. Comments made by Dunlop to undercover police officers during the Furlan investigation help to explain his choice of victims. Dunlop told undercover officers that on the night he killed Furlan, he'd set out to kill someone "who wouldn't be missed." When Dunlop went looking for his second victim years later, he likely thought the same thing. Court of King's Bench Justice Colin Feasby noted in his conviction decision that Dunlop likely believed police wouldn't thoroughly investigate the murder of a street sex worker. Dunlop was wrong. He now faces life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI
WASHINGTON (AP) — The phone rings. It's the secretary of state calling. Or is it? For Washington insiders, seeing and hearing is no longer believing, thanks to a spate of recent incidents involving deepfakes impersonating top officials in President Donald Trump's administration. Digital fakes are coming for corporate America, too, as criminal gangs and hackers associated with adversaries including North Korea use synthetic video and audio to impersonate CEOs and low-level job candidates to gain access to critical systems or business secrets. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, creating realistic deepfakes is easier than ever, causing security problems for governments, businesses and private individuals and making trust the most valuable currency of the digital age. Responding to the challenge will require laws, better digital literacy and technical solutions that fight AI with more AI. 'As humans, we are remarkably susceptible to deception,' said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and founder of the tech firm Pindrop Security. But he believes solutions to the challenge of deepfakes may be within reach: 'We are going to fight back.' AI deepfakes become a national security threat This summer, someone used AI to create a deepfake of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to reach out to foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor over text, voice mail and the Signal messaging app. In May someone impersonated Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Another phony Rubio had popped up in a deepfake earlier this year, saying he wanted to cut off Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's Starlink internet service. Ukraine's government later rebutted the false claim. The national security implications are huge: People who think they're chatting with Rubio or Wiles, for instance, might discuss sensitive information about diplomatic negotiations or military strategy. 'You're either trying to extract sensitive secrets or competitive information or you're going after access, to an email server or other sensitive network," Kinny Chan, CEO of the cybersecurity firm QiD, said of the possible motivations. Synthetic media can also aim to alter behavior. Last year, Democratic voters in New Hampshire received a robocall urging them not to vote in the state's upcoming primary. The voice on the call sounded suspiciously like then-President Joe Biden but was actually created using AI. Their ability to deceive makes AI deepfakes a potent weapon for foreign actors. Both Russia and China have used disinformation and propaganda directed at Americans as a way of undermining trust in democratic alliances and institutions. Steven Kramer, the political consultant who admitted sending the fake Biden robocalls, said he wanted to send a message of the dangers deepfakes pose to the American political system. Kramer was acquitted last month of charges of voter suppression and impersonating a candidate. 'I did what I did for $500,' Kramer said. 'Can you imagine what would happen if the Chinese government decided to do this?' Scammers target the financial industry with deepfakes The greater availability and sophistication of the programs mean deepfakes are increasingly used for corporate espionage and garden variety fraud. 'The financial industry is right in the crosshairs," said Jennifer Ewbank, a former deputy director of the CIA who worked on cybersecurity and digital threats. 'Even individuals who know each other have been convinced to transfer vast sums of money.' In the context of corporate espionage, they can be used to impersonate CEOs asking employees to hand over passwords or routing numbers. Deepfakes can also allow scammers to apply for jobs — and even do them — under an assumed or fake identity. For some this is a way to access sensitive networks, to steal secrets or to install ransomware. Others just want the work and may be working a few similar jobs at different companies at the same time. Authorities in the U.S. have said that thousands of North Koreans with information technology skills have been dispatched to live abroad, using stolen identities to obtain jobs at tech firms in the U.S. and elsewhere. The workers get access to company networks as well as a paycheck. In some cases, the workers install ransomware that can be later used to extort even more money. The schemes have generated billions of dollars for the North Korean government. Within three years, as many as 1 in 4 job applications is expected to be fake, according to research from Adaptive Security, a cybersecurity company. 'We've entered an era where anyone with a laptop and access to an open-source model can convincingly impersonate a real person,' said Brian Long, Adaptive's CEO. 'It's no longer about hacking systems — it's about hacking trust.' Experts deploy AI to fight back against AI Researchers, public policy experts and technology companies are now investigating the best ways of addressing the economic, political and social challenges posed by deepfakes. New regulations could require tech companies to do more to identify, label and potentially remove deepfakes on their platforms. Lawmakers could also impose greater penalties on those who use digital technology to deceive others — if they can be caught. Greater investments in digital literacy could also boost people's immunity to online deception by teaching them ways to spot fake media and avoid falling prey to scammers. The best tool for catching AI may be another AI program, one trained to sniff out the tiny flaws in deepfakes that would go unnoticed by a person. Systems like Pindrop's analyze millions of datapoints in any person's speech to quickly identify irregularities. The system can be used during job interviews or other video conferences to detect if the person is using voice cloning software, for instance. Similar programs may one day be commonplace, running in the background as people chat with colleagues and loved ones online. Someday, deepfakes may go the way of email spam, a technological challenge that once threatened to upend the usefulness of email, said Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop's CEO. 'You can take the defeatist view and say we're going to be subservient to disinformation," he said. 'But that's not going to happen.' David Klepper, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Washington Post
13 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Georgia Republican Mike Collins joins field seeking to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026
ATLANTA — Georgia Republican Mike Collins said Monday that he will join the field challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in the state the GOP has named as their top target to add a Senate seat in 2026. A second-term member of Congress from a district east of Atlanta, Collins becomes the newest top Republican to get into the primary race. U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter is already running, while state Insurance Commissioner John King dropped out. Also expected to run is former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley .
