State Rep. Melissa Hortman and State Sen. John Hoffman, who had been focused by a shooter on Saturday, had been longtime members of Minnesota’s state legislature who spent years working to enhance their communities, in response to leaders who knew them.
Hortman and her husband, Mark, had been shot and killed at their residence in Brooklyn Park early Saturday by a suspect who posed as a police officer, investigators mentioned. They left behind two youngsters.
Hoffman and his spouse, Yvette, had been shot earlier within the morning by the identical suspect inside their residence at Champlin. The couple, who’ve a daughter, had been rushed to a hospital and underwent surgical procedure, Gov. Tim Walz mentioned.
Authorities mentioned they’ve identified 57-year-old Vance Boelter as a suspect as they seek for the gunman.
On this Jan. 3, 2023, file picture, Speaker of the Home Melissa Hortman addresses the home ground in St. Paul, Minn. | John Hoffman is present n throughout a ground session, on Jan. 4, 2023.
Abbie Parr/AP | A.J. Olmscheid, Minnesota Senate Media Providers
Each state leaders had been members of Minnesota’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Celebration (DFL), a state occasion affiliated with the Democrats.
Hortman, 55, nee Haluptzok, had essentially the most expertise within the state legislature. She earned a BA in political science and philosophy at Boston College and labored as an intern for then-Sen. Al Gore and later Sen. John Kerry, in response to her marketing campaign biography.
Hortman went on to earn a legislation diploma on the College of Minnesota Regulation Faculty in 1995 and clerked with Decide John Sommerville. She later earned an MPA from Harvard in 2018.
Exterior politics, Hortman labored as a personal legal professional and volunteered her time within the native faculty board and Sunday faculty at Saint Timothy Catholic Church in Blaine. She first ran for workplace in 1998, for the State Home of Representatives seat, however misplaced.
Home Speaker Melissa Hortman glances on the gallery earlier than gaveling within the first session of the 2024 legislative session, on Feb. 12, 2024.
Andrew VonBank, Minnesota Home Public Data Providers
After one other defeat for a similar seat 4 years later, Hortman was elected to the state’s District 47B in 2004.
Hortman shortly rose by the ranks of the Home, serving as assistant majority chief from 2007 to 2010 and as minority whip from 2011 to 2012. She championed many causes, together with reproductive rights and environmental points.
She additionally pushed for stricter gun management and attended occasions with gun management advocates, together with Everytown for Gun Security.
In 2017, she was named minority chief and have become speaker in 2019 after the DFL gained a majority within the Home. Hortman spearheaded efforts to cross police reform in 2020 following the George Floyd protests.
Throughout this yr’s session, the state Home Republicans and the DFL engaged in a tense standoff over management after Republicans gained seats. A DFL boycott resulted in February with a power-sharing settlement the place Hortman retained the title of minority chief till a March particular election created a tie within the Home.
On this picture posted to his Fb account, Mark Hortman is proven with Melissa Hortman and their youngsters.
Mark Hortman/Fb
Hortman and her husband had been married for 31 years. Mark Hortman labored as a program supervisor for nVent Electrical, an organization that specialised in electronics, significantly inexperienced electronics, in response to his Fb and LinkedIn pages.
Mark Hortman ceaselessly posted images and updates about his household on his Fb web page.
“A few weeks in the past, I posted a video displaying off how we taught our canine ring the doorbell when he desires to return inside. Nicely, now that canine has discovered that if he desires to play he rings the doorbell after which ding dong ditches us simply to get us to return exterior and play!,” he posted in 2023.
Melissa and Mark Hortman attend at Minnesota’s Democratic Farmer Labor Celebration’s annual Humphrey-Mondale Dinner on the Minneapolis Hilton on Friday, June 13, 2025.
Minnesota Home DFL Caucus
The couple attended the DFL’s annual Humphrey-Mondale Dinner on the Minneapolis Hilton on Friday, in response to the Minnesota Home DFL Caucus.
They had been killed on the identical day because the birthday of Melissa Hortman’s father, her sister, Lieza Jean Haluptzok, advised ABC Information.
“We cherished them dearly; they are going to be missed. It’s a horrible factor. I hope they catch him. And so they get justice for what occurred. It’s devastating,” she mentioned Saturday afternoon.
Hoffman, 60, was elected to the State Senate in 2012.
Jim Abeler, John Hoffman, Jeremy Miller talk about senate enterprise throughout a ground session, on Jan. 4, 2023. Jim Abeler is a Republican from Anoka, John Hoffman is a Democrat from Champlin, and Jeremy Miller is a Republican from Winona.
A.J. Olmscheid, Minnesota Senate Media Providers
A Wyoming native, Hoffman earned a bachelor’s diploma from Saint Mary’s College and spent a number of a long time working for varied Minnesota companies and non-profits, in response to his marketing campaign bio web page.
He was the co-founder of Shopper Credit score of Minnesota, a non-profit client help group, and served on the Anoka Hennepin Faculty Board beginning in 2005, his bio mentioned.
In 2012, he gained the state senate seat for District 34 and would win reelection three extra occasions.
On this picture posted to her Fb web page, Yvette Hoffman is proven.
Yvette Hoffman/Fb
He served because the minority whip from 2017 to 2020 and is on the Senate’s Human Providers committee.
“All through my profession, I’ve been afforded many alternatives to imagine progressive administration roles, which have allowed me to realize and implement a novel set of experience,” he wrote on his marketing campaign web page.
ABC Information’ Mark Guarino contributed to this report.
