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Melissa Hortman, representative of the state of Minnesota, and her husband were shot on Saturday morning, which the governor Tim Walz described as “politically motivated murder”.
Hortman, a democrat, and her husband were shot in her house in Brooklyn Park, a city north of Minneapolis, by a man dressed as a policeman, the authorities said. The police are still looking for the suspect who escaped civil servants after a shootout.
“My good friend and colleague Melissa and her husband Mark were shot in a politically motivated attack this morning,” said Tim Walz, the governor of the state. He described Hortman as “an impressive civil servant, a fixed point and a giant in Minnesota”.
The senator of the democratic state John Hoffman and his wife were also shot in their house on Saturday morning in an incident. Waltz said they relax in the hospital.
“We are carefully optimistic that you will survive this assassination,” said Walz and described it as a “act of political violence”.
Bob Jacobson, Commissioner for Public Security at Minnesota, said that the shooter was disguised as a police officer and added: “The suspect had exploited the trust of our uniforms.”
Jacobson said that there was increased security for civil servants and others who may be at risk.
Law enforcement officers confirmed that the shooter was not a policeman, but a vehicle drove to be a patrol car.
In a statement, US President Donald Trump said that he had been informed “about the terrible shootout in Minnesota, which seems to be a targeted attack against the legislator of the state”.
“Our Attorney General, Pam Bondi and the FBI, examine the situation and are being followed in full of the law,” he said in comments published on the Social Media platform X by the press spokesman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt.
“Such terrible violence is not tolerated in the United States. God bless the great people in Minnesota, a really big place!”
