A Democratic state lawmaker has been killed and another wounded in what officials are calling politically motivated shootings at two separate homes in Minnesota.
State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot in their Champlin residence, Governor Tim Walz confirmed at a press conference on Saturday.
“This was a politically motivated assassination,” Walz said, describing the attack as a deliberate act of political violence.
In a separate incident in nearby Brooklyn Park, State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were both shot multiple times. They survived the attack and have undergone surgery. “I’m cautiously optimistic,” Walz said of their recovery.
“This was an act of targeted political violence,” the governor emphasized, warning of the growing threat such attacks pose to democracy.
Walz said he was first briefed on the “ongoing situation” Saturday morning, as authorities responded to the twin attacks in the Minneapolis suburbs of Champlin and Brooklyn Park.
The shootings have rattled Minnesota’s political establishment and reignited concerns over the rise of political violence in the US
A recent University of Chicago survey found that while such violence is becoming more common, the vast majority of Americans continue to reject it.
Investigations into both shootings are underway, with state and federal authorities treating the incidents as connected. Security has been heightened for elected officials across the state.
(The Guardian)
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