A Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband were shot and killed in their home early on Saturday morning in what Governor Tim Walz called an “act of targeted political violence”.
House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, 55, a Democrat, and her husband were killed in Brooklyn Park, a city near Minneapolis.
State Senator John Hoffman, 60, also a Democrat, and his wife were targeted in their home in nearby Champlin in a related shooting.
They were shot multiple times and are out of surgery, Walz said, adding he was “cautiously optimistic” they would survive.
A manhunt is underway for a suspect who was impersonating a police officer.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said a suspect was using a police “badge and uniform” to manipulate his way into the lawmakers’ homes, and was even driving a car that looks like a “police vehicle” and was equipped with emergency lights.
Minnesota Superintendent Drew Evans said officers received a call at 02:00 local time regarding the incident involving Hoffman and his wife.
Evans said another call was placed to police at 03:35, when officers were proactively checking on Hortman.
The police exchanged gunfire with the suspect at Hortman’s home, but he managed to escape.
Chief Bruley said police are engaged in an “extensive manhunt” alongside the FBI, SWAT and hundreds of police officers. He said police took the suspect’s car and believe he is travelling on foot.
Champlin Police said the “suspect or suspects remain at large”, but there is no indication of an “ongoing threat to the public”.
Authorities are warning people in the area not to answer their door for a police officer unless there are two officers together.
Brooklyn Park Police Department has issued a shelter-in-place order for a three-mile (4.8 km) radius of Edinburgh Golf Course.
Bob Jacobson, the state’s commissioner of public safety, said public servants have been “targeted in a violent and cowardly way”.
Jacobson added that the suspect exploited the trust that “our uniforms are meant to represent” which is “deeply disturbing” to those who wear the badge.
Saturday was a “dark day” for Minnesota, but “we will not allow fear or violence to define who we are or how we move forward”, he said.
He added there is increased security in place for elected officials and others who may be at risk.
Zach Lindstrom, the mayor of nearby Mounds View, said elected officials had received a “safety alert”.
Walz activated the State Emergency Operations Center – used for managing disasters or emergencies – in response to the shootings.
The governor said Minnesota had lost a “great leader and I lost the dearest of friends”.
He called Hortman “a formidable public servant, a fixture and a giant in Minnesota”, saying “she woke up every day determined to make the state a better place”.
“We don’t settle our differences with violence or gunpoint in the state of Minnesota,” Walz said.
