Governor Tim Walz condemns ‘politically motivated assassination’ as search continues for Vance Luther Boelter

A prominent Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and her husband were killed and another Democratic state lawmaker and his wife were shot in the early hours of Saturday.

State representative Melissa Hortman died, as has her husband, Mark, the state’s governor, Tim Walz, confirmed at a press conference on Saturday. Walz said the shooting “appears to be a politically motivated assassination”. Hortman was the top Democrat in the Minnesota house and the former speaker. The Democratic state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were both shot multiple times and are out of surgery, and Walz said he was “cautiously optimistic” both will survive.

The suspect was still at large, police said on Saturday, and the suburb of Brooklyn Park was under a shelter-in-place order as checkpoints were set up through the town. Police lifted a shelter-in-place order in the afternoon, saying they had reason to believe the suspect was no longer in the area. The shooter was impersonating a police officer, and was dressed in a uniform that would appear to be real to most people, police said.