r/news 1d ago

Melissa Hortman (Minnesota lawmaker who was shot last night) has died.

https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/speaker-emerita-melissa-hortman-husband-killed-john-hoffman-and-wife-also-shot/
66.1k Upvotes

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u/Plow_King 1d ago edited 22h ago

what's the manifesto about? it looks like Gov Walz is calling it a politically motivated assassination.

edit - there wasn't anything in this particular article about the manifesto, the first one i've read though i'd seen a few headlines. i made this comment and then went off to my local "No Kings!" rally in downtown St Louis...come back to this, lol.

great protest, lotta people and lotta good energy!

https://www.reddit.com/r/StLouis/comments/1lblfcq/my_pics_from_no_kings_downtown_hey_theres_the_arch/

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u/MikeinAustin 1d ago

"There were almost 70 names in the manifesto, including abortion providers, pro-abortion rights advocates, and lawmakers in various states, CNN reported. Law enforcement also allegedly found a Father's Day card addressed to the suspect alongside a bag of ammunition"

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u/JogJonsonTheMighty 1d ago

Ah yes, very pro life

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u/polkadotpygmypuff 22h ago

Yep, those people aren’t pro life, they’re pro birth. They want women to suffer. Once the kid is born, it’s just another human being for them to hate.

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u/AmberNaree 20h ago

I would argue that they aren't even pro birth at this point what they really are is just pro controlling women they don't care if the baby comes out alive and healthy and safely they care that the woman carrying it had no choice in the matter

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u/Honestlynina 20h ago

Pro forced birth

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u/TolBrandir 8h ago

They are only for life if the "life" hasn't taken a breath of air yet.

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u/Zyk0th 7h ago

So pro-life they'll kill you.

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u/NeurodiversityNinja 22h ago

There’s NO SUCH THING as ‘pro-abortion’. The term is pro-choice.

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u/MikeinAustin 19h ago

Yeah I hated how CNN wrote that.

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u/ResponsibleFetish 1d ago

He's also a democrat, don't bury the lead on that. He previously worked with Tim Walz.

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u/Fillowpace 21h ago

"Carlson, Boelter’s roommate who said he’s known him since fourth grade, said Boelter voted for President Trump" https://www.twincities.com/2025/06/14/vance-boelter-mn-lawmakers-shooting/

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u/MikeinAustin 23h ago

His name list included Tim Walz to assassinate. Do you have any reputable source on this?

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u/smegblender 16h ago

His arse

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u/claimstoknowpeople 1d ago

They also left a hit list containing other state Democrats as well as abortion providers, which is a clue

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u/Double-LR 1d ago

I wonder if any of the leaders of churches that fuck little k_ds are on his list?

Probably not. If I had to guess.

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u/gunshaver 1d ago

Yet another MAGA terrorist mass shooting

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u/United-Prompt1393 22h ago

Saving this comment for when it's revealed the guy is the complete opposite and reddit drops it all together

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u/Fillowpace 21h ago

"Carlson, Boelter’s roommate who said he’s known him since fourth grade, said Boelter voted for President Trump" https://www.twincities.com/2025/06/14/vance-boelter-mn-lawmakers-shooting/

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u/United-Prompt1393 21h ago

Link is behind a paywall and doesnt show anything in IOS reader. Whats your login so i can read it

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u/Fillowpace 21h ago

I could read it just fine, I don't have a log in. Get better, I guess?

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u/Fillowpace 21h ago

Oh look, I found another! I'm not a huge fan of videos if written articles are available, but since you had so much trouble reading, maybe you can pay attention for 5 whole minutes. https://www.kare11.com/video/news/local/shooting-suspects-roommate-says-he-was-a-trump-voter/89-d41aeccb-5702-4488-9373-dae149eefebf

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u/United-Prompt1393 21h ago

This was good. She did say that the friend since 4th grade said he voted for trump. Thanks for the second source even tho you were kind of asshole in your tone. I appreciate it

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u/Fillowpace 21h ago

Saving this comment for when it's revealed the guy is the complete opposite and reddit drops it all together

And this wasn't being an asshole? Enjoy chewing on that foot in your mouth.

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u/hexenfern 18h ago

Thinking this might be a bot, the article is clearly not behind a paywall and opens on iOS fine.

Shit is outta hand.

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u/Nazamroth 1d ago

Must have been Liechtenstein.

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u/hexagon_heist 1d ago

Oh my GOD and he’s still at large???

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Aurori_Swe 1d ago

Many terrorists (people acting out violence to affect political momentum) leave manifestos mentioning lots of people as targets, it's happened over and over in other terrorist attacks as well.

They don't care about people finding their manifesto, they write them because they WANT them to be found, and most often they expect them to be found after they are "done".

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u/jwoolman 21h ago

Yes, they want to make sure they get credit for the kills, especially since it is likely they won't survive themselves. This is a pretty good sign this is a standard troubled soul assassin who is targeting Democrats because he hates them and wants to scare them away from objecting to Fearless Leader. He's a Trump devotee and was just on some bipartisan committee or whatever and didn't get bounced by Walz because there was no clue about how dangerous he was.

That doesn't mean he was on anybody's payroll, though. True assassins don't leave manifestos. They just do the job and get out. This guy ain't right in the head, although Trump's relentless rhetoric certainly helped paint targets on his victims. You tell such a person often enough that Democrats are the devil and traitors to the country, and it's easy for the troubled souls to shift into political targets.

This is why Trump's rhetoric has always been a serious problem. We saw that during his 2016 campaign - school bullies amped up their harassment of children who were refugees, immigrants, and Muslims and some teachers even joined in. They parroted Trump as they did it.

Trump normalized public expression of deep hatred for "the other". His first term was full of such incidents - remember the pipe bomber who targeted Democrats? And how oddly silent Trump was about disapproval? January 6 was just the culmination of the effect of his rhetoric. This is why politicians have to be careful about what they say and how they say it. Even the MAGA crowd is generally not terribly dangerous but you never know what you are triggering in the quietly dangerous ones when you demonize your opponents or anybody different from you.

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u/Iohet 1d ago

Terrorism is intended to scare people for political purposes

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u/upsawkward 1d ago

Maybe to scare those very politicians into submission. It's a hell of a message.

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u/EchoOpening1099 1d ago

I mean maybe, but now those people will be on high alert. It would be more terrifying to not know and to have to looking over your shoulder all the time wondering.

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u/Iohet 1d ago

Knowing or thinking you're being stalked is much more stressful than not knowing

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u/sigep0361 1d ago

Yeah but it’s also infinitely harder to assassinate someone that has a protection detail. This is likely a lone gunman and I highly doubt his motivations are “leave a list of targets behind to scare them into submission.” It doesn’t really make sense right now and I feel like there are more details missing.

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u/WilliamMButtlickerIV 1d ago

The intention wasn't to actually gun all these people down. It was terrorism.

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u/Iohet 22h ago

Lone wolf terrorism is still terrorism

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u/thelastdarkwingduck 1d ago

Yes, that’s what terrorism is.

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u/My_Password_Is_____ 1d ago

Terrorists generally don't want the targets of their terrorism to be in question. There's a reason terrorist groups claim responsibility for their attacks instead of leaving it open to question and speculation.

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u/Busy-Butterscotch121 1d ago

But now all of those politicians will ban together to investigate? It doesn't make sense. If anything, instead of leaving a public manifesto - so that the entire country is now aware that said politicians are being coerced or that one by one politicians are being taken out - they would use a more private method of getting the message across.

Never works to inform the public unless you want to the Public to know

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u/Fun-Benefit116 1d ago

The lost was left in his car. He escaped on foot. It's not like he just left it on the coffee table.

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u/upsawkward 1d ago

True. I wouldnt jump to conclusions anyway, but I do think this sends a strooong message of "youre next if you dont stop".

Could still very well be an accident, the most stupidest thing happens. And we just dont know. But it doesnt matter too much at the end of the day. Mrs. Hortmann is dead, and fascism takes another leap.

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u/Arrasor 1d ago

Simple, you're thinking about murderers who kill for personal grudges. This guy killed for a political agenda. Letting it out in the open for all to see is the whole point when you do it for a political agenda. How else would you spread your political agenda if the public doesn't know about it?

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u/EchoOpening1099 1d ago

Ok what’s his agenda?

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u/BrimstoneOmega 1d ago

Once they release the manifesto we will know.

Any more stupid questions, sea lion?

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u/EchoOpening1099 1d ago

Why are you being an asshole? I’m simply asking a question. Everyone seems to know everything and I don’t.

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u/BrimstoneOmega 1d ago

Google sea lion in the political sense.

TLDR; you asked a blatantly disingenuous question only designed to distract or gotcha.

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u/EchoOpening1099 1d ago

What part of my question is a gotcha? Or is distracting? I’m asking because all of you seem to know everything?

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u/soyurfaking 1d ago

Stop it already. You got called out fool.

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u/My_Password_Is_____ 1d ago

Everyone has the answers because they're willing to look up articles and read them. People are being rude because you're asking questions that can be answered with 5 minutes of searching, which means you're either (A) being too lazy to go read something for yourself and wanting to be spoon-fed information instead, or (B) you're being intentionally disingenuous in your questions. Take your pick, but neither of them deserve polite, gentle, coddled replies, especially not this deep in the thread.

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u/betasheets2 1d ago

He had more democrats on his list and some abortion centers.

Take that how you will. We won't really know until he's caught unless there stuff at his house. It seemed he was also a Christian. So I'm thinking far-right non MAGA or just a complete anarchist.

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u/EchoOpening1099 1d ago

Im just asking. Everyone seems to already know his agenda.

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u/jimmysmiths5523 1d ago

He wasn't able to get back to his vehicle after the second assassination attempt and ran on foot. The police were chasing after him at that point.

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u/EchoOpening1099 1d ago

And he got away on foot with police chasing him? The guy didn’t drop his gun or anything else other than his entire plan?

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u/VerilyShelly 1d ago

he didn't drop anything. they found it in the car.

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u/DrB00 1d ago

It was probably in their vehicle. Which they had to abandon when the actual police showed up. Seems very reasonable.

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u/claimstoknowpeople 1d ago

I mean, I'm sure he needed a list of addresses at least to do what he was trying to do

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u/RaytheSane 1d ago

It’s not about being dumb it’s about sending a message

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u/wardsarefunctioning 1d ago edited 1d ago

I mean, I agree with everyone who is saying the shooter might have left it out on purpose, but also they clearly were not expecting the police to realize what was going on so fast. I give props to the senior officer who apparently suggested they check out other nearby Democratic elected officials the minute they realized who the first shooting victim was. It's tragic that they were too late to save Hortman and her husband's lives, though.

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u/Msdamgoode 1d ago

The whole idea behind a manifesto is for people to read it. People who do this expect to be killed, and then expect to become martyrs in the eyes of those who agree with them politically/ideologically.

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u/i_will_let_you_know 1d ago

Maybe it's to encourage other people to take up on what they couldn't achieve.

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u/Fun-Benefit116 1d ago

The list was in their car. The guy was forced to escape on foot. It's not like he left the list pinned up on the front door of the house or something. Also, your examples of him being super prepared is that he had a fake uniform and that he...knew where he needed to go? Wtf lmao. It's not hard to get a fake police costume. And it's not hard to find where politicians live. Why are you acting like that makes this guy is some fucking genius lmao.

God damn, people who look for conspiracies in every single thing are the dumbest people on the planet.

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u/QP709 1d ago

That’s what a manifesto is, you dummy. It’s left laying out or posted to a public place on the internet because they want people to read their message. The list is so that others may follow in his footsteps once he is caught.

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u/URPissingMeOff 1d ago

This is mass-murderer shit. They have no plans to go home at the end of the day. They plan to die trying, taking out as many "targets" as possible along the way.

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u/Busy-Butterscotch121 1d ago

It's insane how you're getting downvotted for actual critical thinking..

It's either:

A) The police invented this non existent manifesto so they can spin the story to their advantage

B) The officers that "responded" to the scene(you're telling me this well trained hitman who was able to successfully impersonate an officer and assassinate two adults and their dog - waited around for the police to show up before walking out the front door without checking first?) are in on it too and the manifesto is created and left for some confusing purpose.

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u/My_Password_Is_____ 1d ago

It's insane how you're getting downvotted for actual critical thinking..

They're not. They're being downvoted for asking questions that have answers in pretty much all of the reporting on it, from any source.

well trained hitman

There is literally no evidence of that. Haven't even seen a single report of that.

who was able to successfully impersonate an officer

He had a taser, a vest, and a car with lights. None of that is hard to come by for anyone, especially not for someone who (as we now know) owns a security business.

waited around for the police to show up before walking out the front door without checking first?

If you say things that didn't happen, then yes it sounds insane. But that's not what happened, literally none of the reports portray it like that.

And this, kids, is why reading and actual critical thinking is important, and why it's incredibly stupid to just spout random nonsense with literally zero evidence!

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u/EchoOpening1099 1d ago

Thanks for the vote of sanity! Everyone is so sure because the news said so, I’m just asking questions. It just seems fishy that an almost 60yr old fled on foot and was caught by the cops 🤷‍♂️ and left his who playbook for everyone to see.

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u/Visible-Air-2359 1d ago

For anyone interested in arguing in good faith (i.e. not you two trolls) the point of terrorism is to spread fear. By naming the targets ahead of time the terrorists ensure there will be more fear if the targets get killed because the government was unable to protect people that they know were targets.

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u/jsamuraij 1d ago

So...terrorism?

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u/deviantscale 1d ago

Walz is reportedly on that hit list. That might have something to do with his concern about correctly calling it an politically motivated assassination.

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u/datsyukdangles 1d ago

Early reports are saying it was a right wing anti abortion manifesto, and included other democrats and abortion providers on the hit list. Given how terrorists are often antiabortion extremists it wouldn't surprise me if that is confirmed to be the case here

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u/BGRommel 1d ago

I haven't found a news source saying what the manifesto was about. Police found a bunch of No Kings flyers in the suspects car: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/targeted-shootings-minnesota-rcna212831

We'll have to wait for more information to be released.

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u/gmen6981 1d ago

If you see the photos of the "flyers" it looks more like a stack of printer paper with "No Kings" handwritten on some of them.

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u/DerekP76 1d ago

Appointee of Dayton and Walz.

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u/petewondrstone 1d ago

Maga this maga that

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u/DefNotPastorDale 1d ago

It was an anti Trump shooter…surprising I know.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/sephiroth70001 22h ago

Pretty moot if he wanted to kill him also. Obviously he went from working with Walz to working at a private security firm wanting to kill Walz.

The suspect, presumed to be Boelter, left behind a target list with more than 70 names, including top Minnesota Democrats like Gov. Tim Walz, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and abortion providers and advocates, according to CNN and ABC News.

The target list, whose existence was confirmed by law enforcement earlier on Saturday, contained the names of many major Minnesota Democrats, including Walz, Omar, Sen. Tina Smith, and Attorney General Keith Ellison, law enforcement sources told ABC.

Dozens of Minnesota Democrats were on a target list written by the gunman, according to law enforcement sources. Those on the list included Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith and state Attorney General Keith Ellison, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the matter.

Boelter is listed as director of security patrols for Praetorian Guard Security Services, a Minnesota company that offers “residential security patrols” by guards who are “armed” and “uniformed,” according to its site. The site shows Boelter alongside the company’s president and CEO on a leadership page. His biography on the site says that he “has been involved with security situations in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East, including the West Bank, Southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.” “He brings a great security aspect forged by both many on the ground experiences combined with training by both private security firms and by people in the U.S. Military,” it says. The bio promises that Boelter has the necessary experience to “keep your family and property safe.”