FBI posts US$50,000 reward for suspect in Minnesota lawmaker’s assassination
Ex-House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed, while State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were wounded
A manhunt was under way on Sunday for a gunman who shot two Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota, killing Melissa Hortman and her husband and wounding the other, in what Governor Tim Walz called a “politically motivated assassination”.
The shootings on Saturday came as deep political divisions have riven the United States, the same day that hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country took to the streets to rally against the policies of Republican President Donald Trump.
Democratic State Representative Hortman – a former speaker of the House – and her husband Mark were killed at their home in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, Walz announced in a news conference.
State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot and wounded at their home in nearby Champlin, he said.
“We believe he’s working to potentially flee the [Minneapolis-St Paul] area,” Drew Evans, superintendent of the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, told reporters.