Manhunt Underway After Minnesota Democratic House Leader's Assassination

ABC News

Melissa Hortman, and her husband, Mark Hortman.

Minnesota police and the FBI continued an extensive manhunt on Saturday evening, 14 June 2025, for a gunman posing as a police officer, who fatally shot a senior U.S. Democratic state assemblywoman and her husband in what Minnesota Governor Tim Walz described as a “politically motivated assassination”.

The suspect, identified as 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter, is also alleged to have shot and wounded a second lawmaker and that individual’s spouse, according to law enforcement officials and the FBI. Boelter reportedly fled on foot after firing at police officers at the residence of the deceased former Minnesota House Speaker, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, Mark.

Authorities stated that the suspect abandoned a vehicle resembling a police SUV, inside which officers discovered a “manifesto” and a target list comprising other politicians and institutions.

Boelter is considered armed and dangerous and is believed to remain in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, according to Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans. Evans noted that it was too early to determine a definitive motive.

Investigations have revealed that the suspect had connections to evangelical ministries and claimed to be a security expert with experience in the Gaza Strip and Africa, based on online postings and public records reviewed by Reuters. Boelter also described himself online as a former employee of food service companies and, according to state records, was appointed in 2016 by Governor Walz’s predecessor to the advisory Governor’s Workforce Development Board.

David Carlson, 59, told Reuters that he had shared a house in Minneapolis with Boelter for just over a year and last saw him on Friday night. Around 6 a.m. (1100 GMT) on Saturday, Carlson received a text message from Boelter.

“He said that he might be dead soon,” Carlson said, after which he notified the police.

According to law enforcement sources cited by CNN, the list found in the suspect’s abandoned vehicle contained approximately 70 names, including abortion providers and lawmakers from Minnesota and other states. Officials confirmed that the Hortmans and the other victims—state Senator John Hoffman and his wife—were among those listed.

ABC News, also referencing law enforcement officials, reported that the list included numerous Minnesota Democrats, such as Governor Walz, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, Senator Tina Smith, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Melissa Hortman, aged 55 and a mother of two who served for 20 years in the Minnesota House of Representatives, was remembered by Governor Walz for her “grace, compassion and tirelessness”.

Walz, who served as Kamala Harris’s Democratic vice-presidential running mate in the previous year’s election, stated that the gunman proceeded to the Hortmans’ residence after shooting the Hoffmans multiple times at their home in the nearby town of Champlin.

The Hoffmans underwent surgery, and Walz expressed that he was “cautiously optimistic” regarding their recovery from “this assassination attempt”.

“This was an act of targeted political violence,” Walz said. “Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. We do not settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint.”

The shootings provoked widespread shock and condemnation from both Republican and Democratic politicians nationwide, alongside calls for a reduction in increasingly divisive political rhetoric.

The incident follows a contentious congressional hearing on Thursday, during which Walz and two other Democratic governors defended their states’ sanctuary policies for undocumented immigrants.

President Trump stated that he had been 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!” President Trump said in a statement.



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