Manhunt after ‘politically motivated assassination' of US politician

Otago Daily Times

11 hours ago

State representative Melissa Hortman. Photo: Supplied
A gunman posing as a police officer killed a senior Democratic state assemblywoman and her husband on Saturday in an apparent "politically motivated assassination," and wounded a second lawmaker and his spouse, said Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and law enforcement officials.
A major search backed by the FBI was underway for the suspect, who fled on foot after firing at police and abandoning a vehicle in which officers found a "manifesto" and a list of other legislators and officials, law enforcement officials said.
The suspect was identified as 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans told a news briefing.
Boelter should be considered "armed and dangerous" and was last seen on Saturday morning wearing a light-colored cowboy hat and is believed to still be in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, Evans said, adding that it was too soon to determine a motive.
The list found in the abandoned vehicle had about 70 names, reported CNN law enforcement analyst John Miller, a former head of FBI public affairs and former chief of intelligence and counterterrorism for the New York Police Department, citing law enforcement sources.
They included abortion providers, pro-abortion rights advocates, and lawmakers in Minnesota and other states, he said.
ABC News, also citing law enforcement officials, said the list included dozens of Minnesota Democrats including Walz, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, Senator Tina Smith and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
The killings of Melissa Hortman, a former assembly speaker and her husband, Mark, prompted reactions of shock and horror from Republican and Democratic politicians across the country and calls for dialing back increasingly divisive political rhetoric.
The shootings come on the heels of a heated hearing in Congress on Thursday in which Walz and two other Democratic governors defended their states' policies to maintain sanctuary for undocumented immigrants, drawing attacks from Republicans who support Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown.
Minnesota State Patrol chief Col. Christina Bogojevic told reporters that police found flyers in the suspect's vehicle with "No Kings" printed on them, but said police had no direct links to the nationwide "No Kings" protests against President Donald Trump's policies taking place on Saturday.
The organizing No Kings Coalition announced they canceled all protests in Minnesota given a shelter-in-place order and that the suspect was still at large and impersonating a police officer.
Trump said he was briefed on the "terrible shooting that took place in Minnesota, which appears to be a targeted attack against State Lawmakers."
"Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America. God Bless the great people of Minnesota, a truly great place!" Trump said in a statement.
POLICE IMPERSONATOR
Hortman and her husband were shot dead in their home in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, Walz said. The Minneapolis suburb is located in the northern part of Hennepin County, a Democratic stronghold.
Hortman's official website says she and her husband have two children.
Walz said that the gunman went to the Hortmans' residence after shooting Senator John Hoffman and his wife multiple times in their home in the nearby town of Champlin.
Officers canvas the neighborhood after what police said was a targeted shooting in the area around Edinburgh Golf Course in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Photo: Reuters
They underwent surgery, Walz said, adding that he was "cautiously optimistic" that they would survive "this assassination attempt."
"This was an act of targeted political violence," he said. "Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. We don't settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint."
Law enforcement officials said the gunman attacked the Hoffmans at around 2 a.m. CDT (0700 GMT) and then drove about five miles to the Hortmans' residence.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said that a "very intuitive" police sergeant who responded to the Hoffman attack asked colleagues to "proactively" check the Hortmans' residence.
The two officers arriving at the Hortmans' residence saw what appeared to be a police vehicle parked in the driveway with its emergency lights on and an individual dressed and equipped as a police officer leaving the home, he said.
The suspect "immediately fired upon the officers, who exchanged gunfire and the suspect retreated back into the home," Bruley continued.
The suspect, who was wearing a vest with a taser, other police equipment and a badge, is believed to have fled from the rear of the home, he said. The Hortmans and Hoffmans were on the list of names found in the suspect's car, officials said.
POLITICAL VIOLENCE SURGE
The pre-dawn Minnesota killings come amid a surge in U.S. political attacks in recent years, underscoring the dark side of the nation's deepening political divisions.
These include the attempted 2020 kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and a man who broke into Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's residence in April and set it on fire.
In July last year, then-candidate Trump escaped an assassination attempt by a gunman while speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
On Saturday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement that it identified a "credible threat toward state lawmakers planning to attend a protest later today," in Austin and ordered an evacuation of the state capitol and its grounds. It was not immediately clear if there was any link to Minnesota.
Trump has faced criticism from some opponents over his handling of incidents involving political violence.
In one of his first moves in office earlier this year, Trump pardoned nearly everyone criminally charged with participating in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, a move critics said signaled support for the rioters.
The bipartisan Minnesota delegation released a joint statement saying "Today we speak with one voice to express our outrage, grief, and condemnation of this horrible attack on public servants. There is no place in our democracy for politically-motivated violence."