Minnesota shooting: ‘Right-leaning’ pastor arrested after politician shot dead
Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot dead. (Getty)
Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot dead. (Getty)
Police have arrested a “right-leaning” pastor after two politicians were gunned down in a shooting in Minnesota over the weekend.
Minnesotan Police arrested Vance Luther Boelter several days after Democrat Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot dead in their home on Saturday (14 June).
Fellow Democratic lawmaker, John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette, were also shot multiple times, but survived with serious injuries.
Boelter was taken into custody after a day-long manhunt. He has been charged with multiple counts of murder at a state and federal level.
Officials told press that Boelter had allegedly planned to kill two other lawmakers in the State.
The 57-year-old former pastor was both heavily religious and conservative. Several sermons reported by The Independent suggest he holds anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs.
Paul Schroeder, a long-time friend of Boelter, told AP: “He was right-leaning politically but never fanatical, from what I saw, just strong beliefs.”
Minnesotan Police confirmed the attack took place in the early hours of Saturday in Brooklyn Park and Champlin.
Police were called to Hoffman’s home in Champlin at 2:00 CDT (7:00 GMT) where they discovered what looked like an emergency service vehicle parked outside.
Mark Bruley, chief of Brooklyn Park Police, said officers spotted a person posing as law enforcement, believed to be Boelter, wearing “a vest with a Taser” and “a badge” and trying to “to manipulate their way into the home.”
The individual immediately began opening fire on officers and escaped on foot. Police say Boelter visited the homes of two other state lawmakers following the shooting.
Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, described the attack as a “politically motivated assassination.”
During a speech on the incident, he gave a plea for civility, urging people to “shake hands” and “find common ground.”
“This cannot be the norm,” he said. “It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences.”
Melissa Hortman a ‘compassionate’ force for LGBTQ+ and human rights
Minnesota politicians honoured Melissa Hortman after she and her husband after the shooting. In his address on the alleged attacks, Walz called the 55-year-old Democratic politician a “great leader” and “the greatest of friends.”
“Speaker Hortman was someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humour, and a sense of service,” he said. “She was a formidable public servant, a fixture and a giant in Minnesota.”
First elected in 2004, Hortman became a force for LGBTQ+ activism in Minnesota. In 2019, she became the state House speaker, playing a key role in shaping the state’s now-progressive legislation after Democrats gained the government majority in 2022.
A staunch LGBTQ+ ally, Hortman helped turn Minnesota into a sanctuary state at a time where other states were rapidly repealing LGBTQ+ protections.
She co-sponsored a bill in 2023 declaring Minnesota a “trans refuge” state by implementing several protections for trans youth and their families fleeing states that have banned gender-affirming care.
Following its signing, Hortman said on X/Twitter: “People deserve to be loved, accepted & valued for who they are.”
In 2020, Hortman emphasised that “all [Minnesotans] deserve equality and inclusion” in a post celebrating Pride Month, adding that she vowed to “keep working to achieve progress.”
Erin Koegal, a friend and colleague, told Sky News during a Mass the day following Hortman’s death: “It still feels like a bad dream.”
“It’s hit me in waves, the grief, and the anger, and the sadness. She was a leader, a true definition of a leader,” she said. “I’ve never known our party without Melissa as the leader and so I can’t, I don’t even know how we’re going to go forward as a caucus without her.”
