Massachusetts officials outraged by attacks on Minnesota lawmakers

Michael P. Norton

JUNE 14, 2025….Top lawmakers in Massachusetts expressed outrage Saturday over the shootings of two state legislators and their spouses in Minnesota, which officials in that state described as acts of political violence.

At a press conference Saturday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were shot and killed early Saturday in what he called a “politically motivated assassination.”

Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were also both shot multiple times, Walz said, adding that they were out of surgery and he was “cautiously optimistic they will survive this assassination attempt.”

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

Referring to Hortman, Walz said he had lost a friend and Minnesota had “lost a great leader.”

“She was a formidable public servant, a fixture and a giant in Minnesota,” Walz said. “She woke up every day determined to make this state a better place. She is irreplaceable and will be missed by so many.” 

Walz said Minnesota has “the most closely divided state Legislature in the country” but has navigated through politically charged times and found agreements through compromise and civil discourse.

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said a call reporting the shooting at the Hoffman residence in Champlin came at around 2 a.m. and a call regarding the shootings at the Hortman residence in Brooklyn Park occurred at about 3:35 a.m. Two officers checking on the Hortman residence encountered an individual who shot at them and “was able to escape during that exchange of gunfire,” he said.

Officers at the Hortman home found an individual who “was clearly impersonating a police officer,” Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said at Saturday’s press conference. 

“They noticed that there was a police vehicle in the driveway with the lights, the emergency lights on and what appeared to be a police officer at the door coming out of the house,” Bruley said. “When our officers confronted him, the individual immediately fired upon the officers, who exchanged gunfire and the suspect retreated back into the home.” He fled on foot out of the back of the house, Bruley said.

During a search of the suspect’s vehicle, officials found a “manifesto,” Bruley said, “that identified many lawmakers and other officials.” Authorities immediately issued alerts and provided security, he said.

At a later press conference, Evans said authorities were looking for Vance Boelter, 57, as a “person of interest.”

In statements released while authorities hunted for the shooter, top Massachusetts elected officials expressed a combination of shock, sadness and outrage over the shootings and said their thoughts are with the victims and their families.

“Political violence of any kind has no place in America, nor does the kind of inflammatory rhetoric that can often incite that violence,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said. “This is not the America that we want for ourselves and for future generations. We must all strive for something better.”

Gov. Maura Healey said she was “horrified to hear about the shootings in Minnesota.”

“Lawmakers and their loved ones getting shot for their beliefs is yet another sickening act of political violence in a country where it’s become all too common,” Healey said. “This is not normal. It is not who we are as Americans, and we must all condemn political violence in the strongest possible terms.”

In July, Healey condemned the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a presidential campaign rally.

“Horrifying, horrifying. You don’t want to see violence in any form anywhere, and you don’t want to see violence when it comes to a political rally or political violence,” Healey said in July. “It’s important that everybody across the board — all Americans, Democrat, Republican, anything and everything in between — denounce political violence in all its forms. There’s no place for it — there’s no tolerance for it in this country.”

Reacting to the Minnesota shootings, Senate President Karen Spilka: “This is political violence, pure and simple, and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms by every leader in this country. America’s founders envisioned a country where we address our differences through debate, not violence. We must continue to use our voices to keep advocating for the country we dream to be, even as acts of political violence seem more common.”

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said he was “united with those across the country who refuse to allow fear or violence to silence the voices of public servants or the people they represent.”

“These senseless and appalling attacks are a direct affront to the principles of democracy and civil society,” Tarr said. “When violence enters our public life – whether in the streets, online or behind closed doors – it undermines the very fabric of our shared civic trust.”