(AFP) – A Minnesota man who shot dead a state lawmaker and her husband was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for what a judge called an “attack on democracy,” US media reported. Vance Boelter, 59, disguised himself as a police officer during the June 14, 2025 shootings at the homes of two Democratic members of the Minnesota state legislature. State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed in what the authorities said was a politically motivated attack. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were seriously wounded.
Boelter pleaded guilty in June to six federal charges, including two counts of murder by firearm, after prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty. Judge John Tunheim sentenced Boelter to two life terms in prison plus 40 years without the possibility of parole, the Minnesota Star Tribune said. “This was a brutal attack on elected public officials and their families, which is truly an attack on democracy itself,” the newspaper quoted the judge as saying.
The Hortmans’ children, Sophie and Colin, addressed the court at the emotional sentencing hearing, the Star Tribune said. “I miss my mom. I miss my dad,” Sophie Hortman said. “I miss believing in the goodness of humanity.”
Boelter also faces state charges in connection with the shooting, but Minnesota does not have the death penalty. The attacks renewed fears of growing political violence in America. President Donald Trump has been the target of multiple assassination attempts, and prominent right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk was gunned down in September 2025 at a Utah university campus. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home was set on fire last year, and an assailant attacked the husband of then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer in 2022.
The death penalty is normally carried out at the state level in the United States, but the federal government can also seek execution for a limited set of crimes.
© 2024 AFP
