Hundreds of law officers moved to a suburbs of Minneapolis on Saturday in pursuit of a man who, according to the authorities Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called “an assassination with political motivation”. The authorities said the suspect also pulled and injured a second legislator and that he would be tempted to flee the region.
The former Democratic president of the Chamber, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, Mark, were killed in their house in Brooklyn Park. Senator John Hoffman, also a democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were injured at their Champlin address, about 9 miles (about 15 kilometers).
The authorities have identified the suspect like Vance Boelter, 57, and the FBI issued a reward of up to $ 50,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
The authorities displayed a photo taken on Saturday from Boelter carrying a tanned cowboy hat and asked the public to report the observations. Drew Evans, superintendent of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said the investigators also obtained a video.
He did not give details on a possible pattern.
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 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).
The early morning attacks sparked warnings to other elected officials in the state and the cancellation of planning “No kings” demonstrations against President Donald Trump. The authorities said that the suspect had “no kings” in his car and the writings mentioning the names of the victims as well as other legislators and civil servants, although they could not say if he had other specific targets.
A Minnesota official told the Associated Press that suspect’s writings also contained information targeting eminent legislators who were frank in favor of abortion rights. The manager spoke under the cover of anonymity because the investigation was underway.
The shots occurred at a time when the political leaders of the country were attacked, harassed and intimidated in the midst of deep political divisions.
“We all owe, in Minnesota and across the country, oppose all forms of political violence,” said Walz, a democrat at a press conference. “Heads of this will be held responsible.”
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.
Police responded to shots reports at the Hoffmans’ home shortly after 2 a.m., Champlin police announced, and found the couple with several ball injuries.
After seeing who were the victims, the police sent police officers to proactively checking Hortman’s home. There, they met what seemed to be a police vehicle and a man dressed as an officer at the door, leaving the house.
“When the police confronted it, the individual immediately shot the police who exchanged gunshots, and the suspect retired to the house,” and broke on foot, said Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley.
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Several ball holes could be seen at the front door of Hoffman’s house.
John and Yvette Hoffman each underwent surgery, according to Walz.
“We are carefully optimistic that they will survive this attempted assassination,” said the governor at a morning press conference.
Trump said in a statement that the FBI would join the investigation.
“Our Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and the FBI, investigate the situation, and they will pursue any person involved in the measure of the law.
Two Democratic legislators were targeted
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 an electricity sharing agreement, she gave the hammer to the republican representative Lisa Demuth and assumed the title lecturer Emerita.
Hortman used his lecturer’s post in 2023 to help defend the broader protection of abortion rights, including legislation aimed at consolidating 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.
Walz described it as “a formidable civil servant, a must and a giant in Minnesota”.
“She woke up every day, determined to make this state a better place,” he said. “She is irreplaceable.”
Hortman and her husband had two adult children.
The Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, talks about the murder of the representative of the state Mellisa Hortman and her husband at the State Emergency Operations Center in Blaine, Minn .. Saturday June 14, 2025. (Jerry Holt / Star Tribune via AP).
The first autopsy reports of the Bureau of the Legalist’s Legalist’s County of Hennepin gave their cause of death as “multiple ball wounds”.
The reports indicate that Melissa Hortman died on the scene while her husband was declared dead in the hospital.
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 a daughter.
The colonel of the state patrol Christina Bogojevic asked people “by abundance of prudence” not to attend “no kings” demonstrations. Bogojevic said that the authorities had no direct evidence that the demonstrations would be targeted, but noted the leaflets “no kings” in the car.
The organizers have announced that all state demonstrations have been canceled, but many people have always presented themselves for demonstrations in Capitol and elsewhere in the region of twin cities.
Boelter was appointed to the workforce Development Board in 2016, then renewed in 2019 in a four -year term which expired in 2023, according to state files.
The company’s files show that Boelter’s wife has filed a file to create a company called Praetorian Guard Security Services LLC with the same postal address Green Isle listed for the couple. On a company’s website, Boelter’s wife is listed as president and chief executive officer, while he is listed as director of security patrols.
The home page indicates that it offers armed security for properties and events and has a photo of a SUV painted in a black and two -tone silver motif similar to a police vehicle, with a light bar through the roof and a “praetorian” painted on the doors. Another photo shows a man in black tactical equipment with a military style helmet and a ballistic vest.
An online curriculum vitae indicates that Boelter is a security entrepreneur who worked in the Middle East and Africa, in addition to the management roles spent in Minnesota companies.
A former neighbor next to Inver Grove Heights, where Boelter lived, said he barely knew him but remembers his daughters because they have kayake and iced on the pond behind the houses.
“It’s really sad for children, very, very nice children,” said Michael Cassidy. He added that the suspect’s wife came once to pray with his wife and daughter.
Hundreds of police and sheriff deputies, some in tactical equipment with assault weapons, have been dispersed throughout the city. Some checkpoints have been set up.
An alert sent to mobile phones in the morning asked people to shelter in place while the police were looking for a “armed and dangerous” suspect.
“The suspect is a white man, brown hair, wearing a black bullet-shirt vest on a blue shirt and blue pants and can be distorted as police. Do not approach. Call 911,” said the initial alert.
Police raised the order of the refuge in the afternoon, saying that they had reasons to believe that the suspect was no longer in the region.
“It’s crazy, someone who goes after representatives,” said Douglas Thompson, Brooklyn Park resident, 62. “It’s bad. I hope they will catch them.”
The president of the Minnesota Chamber, Lisa Demuth, a Republican of Cold Spring, described the attack on “evil” and said that she had “the heart broken beyond the words” by the murders.
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. The suspect said he was planning to beat Shapiro with a small hammer if he had found it, according to court documents.
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 husband of the speaker of the time, Nancy Pelosi, in their home in San Francisco and a conspiracy in 2020 by anti-government extremists to kidnap the Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer and trigger a civil war.
The Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said that he had asked the Capitol police to “immediately increase security” for Minnesota’s democratic senses. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith. He also asked the head of the majority John Thune, a Republican, to have a briefing on the security of the members.
“The condemnation of violence is important, but it is not enough,” said Schumer on the social platform X. “We must also face the radicalized toxic forces of individuals and we must do more to protect each other, our democracy and the values that bind us as a merchants.”
The writers of the associated press Giovanna Dell’orto in Champlin, Minnesota, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York, and Michael Biesecker and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed.