A search was under way on Saturday for an assailant who shot two Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota, killing one and her husband, and wounding the other, in what the northern US state’s governor said were politically motivated attacks.
The shootings came as deep political divisions have driven the US, the same day that tens of thousands of protesters across the country protested the policies of US President Donald Trump.
Authorities named the assailant as 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter, who was still at large and considered “armed and dangerous.”
Photo: Star Tribune via AP
“We believe he’s working to potentially flee the [Minneapolis-Saint Paul] area,” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans told reporters.
Boelter had been spotted on Saturday morning in the Minneapolis area on surveillance footage obtained from a business, the official said.
Evans said authorities were still investigating the suspect’s motives, and did not know if additional people were involved in the attacks.
Trump and US Attorney General Pam Bondi decried what they called “horrific violence” and said perpetrators would be prosecuted to “the fullest extent of the law.”
The FBI offered a reward of up to US$50,000 for information leading to the capture or conviction of Boelter.
Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman — the former speaker — and her husband, Mark, were killed at their home in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz told a news conference.
Minnesota Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot and wounded at their home in nearby Champlin, the governor said, his voice breaking with emotion.
“This was an act of targeted political violence,” Walz told reporters. “Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. We don’t settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint.”
Hoffman was out of surgery and “in stable condition,” but had sustained “significant injuries,” Evans said.
The state official said Hoffman and his wife were shot first, and as police investigated, Hortman and her husband were shot about 90 minutes later.
The assailant was able to escape during an exchange of fire with officers near Hortman’s residence, Evans said.
Praetorian Guards Security Services, a home security company, described Boelter on its Web site as its director of security patrols.
In both attacks, authorities believe the assailant impersonated a law enforcement officer.
An image of Boelter released by the FBI showed him wearing what appeared to be a life-like latex mask, potentially an attempt to evade identification. An anti-Trump rally in Minneapolis — part of the national wave of “No Kings” protests planned for Saturday — was canceled after police issued a shelter-in-place order because of the shootings.
Flyers for the protests were found in the suspect’s car, as well as a manifesto that named numerous politicians and state officials, police said.
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