Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were shot and killed Friday overnight. The shooting is “what appears to be a politically motivated assassination,” according to Gov. Tim Walz.
State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were also shot and wounded about five miles away from where the shooting of the Hortmans took place, CBS News reported.
What we know about the shooting and shooter
A man impersonating a police officer shot Sen. Hoffman and his wife multiple times, The New York Times reported.
At the Hortman home, Brooklyn Park police officers encountered the suspect “dressed up as an officer with a fake police vehicle,” and the suspect opened fire on officers then fled the scene, per Fox 9.
In the suspect’s vehicle, law enforcement discovered a manifesto and a target list of names of individuals, including the two lawmakers who were shot, according to The Times.
The person of interest identified by law enforcement goes by the name Vance Luther Boelter, is from Minnesota and is 57 years old, per CBS News.
Boelter was appointed by Gov. Walz to the bipartisan workforce development board in 2019, and his term expired in 2023, per Fox 9.
What we know about Rep. Hortman
Hortman was the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and was serving as Speaker of the House, per CNN.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement that he was “beyond heartbroken” by the deaths of Rep. Hortman and her husband.
“She was wise, she was caring, she was brilliant, and her smile lifted people up in good times and helped them through the bad,” he wrote in a post on X.