Hundreds of law enforcement officers were actively continuing the hunt for the individual responsible for the murder of an elected democrat and her husband, killed in the middle of the night at their home, in Minnesota. A drama that is part of a context of major political crisis in the United States, say experts.
The assailant first went to another elected democrat, Senator John Hoffman, 15 km away. His wife Yvette and were reached by several bullets around 2 a.m., but survived the attack.
Shortly after, an elected democrat, the former president of the House of Representatives Melissa Hortman, as well as her husband Mark were murdered at their home of Brooklyn Park by the same suspect.
Photomontage provided by the New York Times
Representative Melissa Hortman and Senator John Hoffman
The shooter, who presented himself to the two domiciles disguised as a police officer, has since not been found, leaving a climate of fear and worry in the northern suburbs.
The event was described as a “deliberate act of political violence”, by the governor of the State, Tim Walz.
In the shooter’s car, found in Brooklyn Park: leaflets of anti-Trump demonstrations and a list of 70 potential targets, including the names of Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman. The list also included former politicians, doctors, communities and businesses, as well as addresses of abortion clinics.
Police identified in the afternoon Vance Boelter, “a 57-year-old white man”, as the main suspect in armed assault. “It was seen for the last time (Saturday) morning with a clear cowboy hat,” Drew Evans, owner of the Minnesota Inquiry, supported, told the press.
FBI photo, provided by the Associated Press
The suspect Vance L. Boelter, above in 2022
According to the state archives, Boelter was a former political official who sat at the Minnesota labor development council as senator Hoffman, one of his victims. It is still unknown if they knew each other, reports Associated Press.
The authorities said it was still too early to find out the crime mobile on Saturday afternoon.
Since the murder of Melissa Hortman and her husband, a real manhunt has been launched in Minnesota: hundreds of agents have launched themselves in search of the suspect. Photos of the man have been widely broadcast with the border patrol, in case the man tries to flee to Canada, according to information from CNN. The FBI even offers a reward of up to $ 50,000 for any information leading to its arrest and conviction.
During the day, Boelter sent a message to one of his roommates, to the Minneapolis residence where he rents a room. David Carlson read to television cameras part of the content of the message he had received, in which the suspect said that he was going to “be absent for a while”.
Photo Ellen Schmidt, Reuters
Pruits and flowers have been placed in front of the Capitol of the State of Minnesota.
Growing tensions
President Donald Trump quickly denounced the terrible attack: “such horrible violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America,” he wrote on Truth Social, on the morning of his 79e birthday.
His reaction would have taken on a completely different scale if the victims had been elected Republicans, according to Érick Duchesne, full professor of the political science department of Laval University. “It would have been absolutely a total drama for Trump,” said this expert.
The violent death of Melissa Hortman occurs in a particularly unstable period in the United States, between the deployment of armed forces in Los Angeles, a military parade in Washington and anti-Trump mobilizations nationwide.
“For what we know, this is an isolated act, but it is part of a very polarized climate, in which threats of violence have been more and more widespread since the last three presidential elections,” explains Francis Langlois, associate researcher with the observatory on the United States of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair.
All this is reminiscent that the president himself escaped last July from an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
In such a crisis situation, a self -respecting president would not go to Kananaskis (Sunday) for the G7 summit.
Érick Duchesne, full professor of the political science department of Laval University
The professor is not surprised by the turn of events. “The extraordinary becomes almost ordinary, now, in the United States,” he comments.
Photo Ellen Schmidt, Reuters
Police did a door-to-door in the Brooklyn Park sector, where Melissa Hortman and her husband lived.
Nothing is left to chance
The Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, was also the Democratic candidate for vice-president in the last election, alongside Kamala Harris. Professor Érick Duchesne recalls that Minnesota was perceived as a pivotal state, at the start of the campaign.
“Barely a year ago, a year and a half, Minnesota also spent one of the most restrictive law in the United States on arms control, and Melissa Hortman had played a preponderant role in this decision,” he said.
Mme Hortman, “irreplaceable” for Tim Watz, is also behind the efforts aimed at adopting a police reform in 2020, after the demonstrations in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. She “had devoted her life to serve the inhabitants of Minnesota, with integrity and compassion”, wrote on X Amy Klobuchar, state senator, saying herself “upset and horrified” by her loss on Saturday.
Melissa Hortman
Melissa Hortman, 55, was the minnesota representative in the House of Representatives, which she also presided over. A mother of two children, the Democrat exercised law as a lawyer before being elected in 2004. She defended many causes, particularly in matters of reproductive rights, environmental issues and firearms control.
John Hoffman
John Hoffman, 60, has been a senator from Minnesota since 2012, and is also part of the social services committee. The elected democrat spent several decades working for various companies and non -profit organizations in Minnesota. He is also the co -founder of Consumer Credit of Minnesota, an organization of assistance to non -profit consumers.
