Melissa Hortman killed and John Hoffman injured in targeted shootings

A legislator of the state of Minnesota and her husband were shot dead at their home early Saturday morning in what Governor Tim Walz called an “act of targeted political violence”.

Walz said the speaker of the Emerita Melissa Hortman Chamber, Democrat, and her husband had been killed.

Senator of State John Hoffman, also a democrat, and his wife was also targeted at their home. They have been slaughtered several times and are without surgery, Walz said at a press conference.

Walz said targeted shots occurred in Brooklyn Park and Champlin, in neighboring cities in Minneapolis. A manhunt is underway for a suspect.

Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Ruley said a suspect pretended to be a police officer.

He added that the suspect used a police “badge and uniform” to make his way in the legislative houses, and even led a car that looks like a “police vehicle”, equipped with emergency lights.

Zach Lindstrom, the mayor of Mounds View nearby, said that elected officials had received a “security alert”.

Authorities warn people in the region not to respond to their door to a police officer unless there are two officers together, the local Fox 9 sale reported.

Mayor Lindstrom said on X that he had heard that the suspect was an imitation of an “officer and that they had not been taken”.

The Brooklyn Park police department issued an on -site shelter order for a radius of three miles (4.8 km) from the Edinburgh golf course.

Walz said on X that the authorities “watched the situation closely” and that he has activated a state emergency operations center – used to manage disasters or emergencies.