The authorities searched a vehicle on a rural road outside Minneapolis on Sunday that they thought they were used by the man sought in the shots two democratic Minnesota The legislators, as a state -of -the -art state, found it difficult to give meaning to the cheeky political violence that made a dead leader.
Former room speaker Melissa Hortman And her husband, Mark, was killed in their house in Brooklyn Park early on Saturday. Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were injured at their home in Champlin, about 9 miles (about 15 kilometers).
57 -year -old authorities Vance Boelter As a suspect, saying that he was wearing a mask when he pretended to be a police officer, was even going to modify a vehicle to make him look like a police car.
More than 24 hours after the authorities confronted him outside Hortman’s house, Boelter was still free after fled. The FBI has issued a reward of up to $ 50,000 for information leading to its arrest and conviction. They broadcast a photo taken on Saturday from Boelter carrying a Cowboy hat and asked the public to report the observations.
Investigators found a cowboy hat near the vehicle and worked to determine if it belongs to Boelter. The law enforcement agents excavated the region, including neighboring houses. The officials were unable to discuss the details of the current investigation and spoke to the Associated Press subject to anonymity.
The excavation took place in the rural county of Sibley, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Minneapolis, where Boelter had a house with his wife and five children. Residents of the region received an emergency alert on the vehicle located which warned them to lock their doors and their cars.
A crowd of officers was seen gathered on a dirt road near the abandoned black sedan which would have been used by Boelter. The doors on both sides of the car were open, with throttled objects dispersed near the vehicle. Some police officers broke up and entered a wooded area of the road. The car was then towed.
“We believe that he is somewhere in the surroundings and that they will find him,” American senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said on Sunday on “Meet the Press” of NBC. “But right now, everyone is on board here, because we know that this man will kill a second.”
The shots occur as the country’s political leaders have been attacked, harassed and intimidated in the midst of deep political divisions. The legislators said they had been disturbed by the attacks while residents of twin cities were crying.
Flowers in bright colors and small American flags were placed on Sunday on the gray marbled stone of Minnesota State Capitol with a photo of the Hortmans. People scribbled messages on small notes, especially: “You were our chef through the most difficult moments. Rest in power. “
Pam Stein came with flowers and on his knees by the memorial. It made Stein emotional to think of Hortman, whom she called an “absolute power” and “the real unknown hero of the Minnesota government”.
“She had a way to bring people to the table and get things done like no one else could do it,” said Stein, a retired lawyer.
Get daily national news
Get the best news of the day, the titles of political, economic and current affairs, delivered in your reception box once a day.
The Hoffmans recovered from surgery, according to their nephew, Mat Ollig.
“It’s just a long way to healing,” he said on Sunday.
The authorities have not yet given details on a reason.
A list of around 70 names was found in the recovered writings of the false police vehicle which was left to the crime, said the officials. The writings and the list of names included state and federal legislators and community leaders, as well as defenders of abortion and information on health establishments, according to officials.
A Minnesota official told AP that the legislators who had been frank in favor of abortion rights were on the list. The manager spoke under the cover of anonymity because the investigation was underway.
The attacks aroused warnings to other elected officials of the State and to the cancellation of demonstrations planned “no kings” against President Donald Trump, although some have in any case, including one who attracted tens of thousands of people to the State Capitol in Saint-Paul. The authorities said the suspect had “no kings” in his car.
The law enforcement officers have recovered several AK -style firearms from the suspect’s vehicle, and he was supposed to be still armed with a pistol, said a person familiar with the AP affair. The person could not publicly discuss the details of the investigation and spoke under the cover of anonymity.
Boelter is a former policy named politician who sat on the same council for the development of the state labor as Hoffman, according to the files, although it is not clear if or how they knew each other.
This photo provided by the FBI on Saturday June 14, 2025 shows Vance L. Boelter in June 2022. (FBI via AP).
Around 6 am on Saturday, Boelter sent sms to friends to apologize for his actions, although he did not say what he had done.
“I’m going to have left for a while. Maybe being dead shortly, so I just want to let you know that I love you both and I want it not to go that way. … I am sorry for all the problems that this has caused,” he wrote in messages considered by the AP.
The police responded to the shots reports at the Hoffmans’ home shortly after 2 am on Saturday and found the couple with several ball injuries.
Local Brooklyn Park police helped the call and decided to proactively check Hortman’s home nearby, Brooklyn Park’s police chief Mark Bruley said on Saturday.
There, they met what seemed to be a police vehicle and a man disguised as an officer leaving the house. The police confronted him, he shot them and the police were burned. The suspect then retired to the house and fled on foot, said Bruley. He left the vehicle designed to look like a police car where the authorities then found writings.
On social networks, Governor Tim Walz remembered Hortman on Sunday as “the most consecutive speaker in state history”.
This combo of the photos provided by the Minnesota legislature shows from left to right, Senator John A. Hoffman and representative Melissa Hortman. (Minnesota Legislative Assembly via AP).
Hortman, 55, was the best Democratic leader of the State House since 2017. She directed the Democrats in a three -week rating at the start of this year’s session in a power struggle with the Republicans. Under a power sharing agreement, she gave the hammer to the republican representative Lisa Demuth and assumed the speaker of the title Emerita.
Hortman used his position as a lecturer in 2023 to defend broad protections for abortion rights, including legislation aimed at solidifying minnesota as a refuge for patients in the restrictive states who go to the state to request abortions – and to protect the providers who serve them.
The couple had two adult children.
Hoffman, 60, was elected for the first time in 2012 and was chairman of the Senatorial Social Services Committee, which oversees one of the largest parts of the state budget. He and his wife have an adult daughter.
Klobuchar condemned online threats and urged people on Sunday to think twice before publishing charges or reasons.
“He is a person who did everything for the right reasons. And regardless of political parties, look at his face before sending your next article,” Klobuchar said about Hortman on CNN “State of the Union.”
Democratic senator Tina Smith, also of Minnesota, said that she was considering full -time protection details in the light of the attacks.
“I don’t want to think that I must have a personal security detail wherever I go, but I think we really have to look at the situation in which we are,” said Smith on NBC News on Sunday. “It is not a way for our government to work when people, a number of us, feel this kind of threat.”
The shots are the last of a series of attacks against the legislators across the parties.
In April, a suspect set fire to the home of the Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro, forcing him and his family to flee during the Jewish Passover party.
In July 2024, Trump was grazed by ear by a hail of bullets who killed a supporter of Trump. Two months later, a man with a rifle was discovered near the President’s Florida golf course and arrested.
Other incidents include a hammer attack in 2022 against the lecturer of the time, Nancy Pelosi, in their house in San Francisco and a 2020 plot by anti-government extremists to kidnap the Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Karnowski reported to Minneapolis, and Balsamo and Durkin Richer reported Washington. The writers of the associated press Michael Biesecker in Washington; Jim Mustian in New York; Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Makiya will sow in Raleigh, NC, contributed.