Minnesota State Rep. Huldah Momanyi-Hiltsley, who was forced to evacuate her home Saturday following the shooting of State Sen. John Hoffman and the subsequent assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, said she was relieved the alleged gunman had been apprehended.
“HE’S BEEN CAPTURED,” she wrote on her X account on Monday morning, after police announced that they had caught the suspected gunman. “Thank you, Jesus! I just need to sit with this moment—for peace, for breath, for gratitude.”
News of the tragedy broke early Saturday morning after police responded to calls reporting that State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette had been shot in their home in Champlin, a suburban city north of Minneapolis. Shortly after, police responded to another call from the home of Rep Hortman and her husband, Mark, who were fatally shot multiple times by a gunman impersonating a police officer.
Following the shootings, law enforcement officials told residents in the Brooklyn Park area to shelter in place and not answer their doors as they launched a manhunt for the alleged gunman, who was identified as 57-year-old Vance Boelter.
With the gunman still at large, Momanyi-Hiltsley, a Democrat who represents District 38A in the Minnesota House of Representatives, and her family were forced to flee their home for fear of her safety. In a statement released on Saturday on her social media, Momanyi-Hiltsley said she was heartbroken by the tragedy her colleagues and their families suffered and had taken measures to ensure that she and her family are safe from harm.
“Like many of you, I’m heartbroken and outraged by the tragic assassination of Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman and her beloved husband, Mark” she said on Facebook. “Rest in power, Speaker Hortman. You were deeply loved, and you will never be forgotten.”
In 2024 Momanyi-Hiltsley became the first Kenyan immigrant to be elected to a state assembly seat anywhere in the United States.
The assassination of Rep. Hortman is the latest incident of political violence in a country that is increasingly becoming polarized along race and party lines, and comes less than a year after a gunman attempted to assassinate President Donald J. Trump during a rally when he was a Republican Party nominee for president. Trump released a statement on Saturday condemning the assassination of Hortman and her husband.
“Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America,” Trump said. “God bless the great people of Minnesota, a truly great place.”
Saturday’s incident is likely to reignite the debate on gun control. The latest data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) shows that in 2023 there were nearly 47,000 deaths by firearm. A Pew Research Center analysis of the CDC data revealed that 79% of murders in the United States involved a firearm. While advocates of gun control cite the this as evidence for reform, their opponents argue that stricter gun laws would violate the Second Amendment of the U.S. constitution, which guarantees individuals the right to bear arms.
On Saturday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he was shaken by the tragedy as he reflected on Hartman’s death and condemned the violent acts.
“Minnesota lost a great leader, and I lost a friend,” he said. “We are not a country that settles our differences at gunpoint. We must stand united against all forms of violence – and I call on everyone to join me in that commitment.”
Leaders from Minnesota’s African community expressed shock and disbelief when they learned about the assassination of Rep. Hortman, who many considered a great ally of immigrants from the continent.
“I’m heartbroken by this tragic loss of our former House Speaker Melissa Hartman and her husband Mark” said Liberian-born Wynfred Russell, a former member of the Brooklyn Park City Council.
Russell said described Hortman as a colleague with whom he worked on initiatives of the environment as well as the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness (LRIF) program, which provided an opportunity for certain Liberian nationals in the United States to obtain lawful permanent resident status and a pathway to citizenship. The program was signed into law in December 2019 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.
On Sunday night, Brooklyn Park police Chief Mark Bruley announced that police had arrested Boelter at a field his property in Green Isle, a town located about 50 miles southwest of Minneapolis. Although the suspect was still heavily armed as he fled, Bruley said police were able to take him onto custody without incident, ending what the chief called “the largest manhunt in state history.”
Author
About Cynthia Simba, Mshale Reporter
Cynthia is a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism. She has interned at Mshale and Voice of America and previously worked at the Minnesota Daily. She recently returned from Seoul, South Korea where she was an English educator.
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