The wife of the wounded Minnesota state senator targeted during an overnight assassination attempt shielded the couple’s daughter as the masked gunman opened fire on the family, missing the couple’s vital organs by inches, family and reports said.
Yvette Hoffman jumped on top of her adult daughter, Hope, while alleged assassin Vance Luther Boetler fired multiple shots at her and State Sen. John Hoffman inside their Minneapolis suburb home early Saturday morning, according to Hoffman’s nephew.
“Early this morning, an absolute vile piece of s–t dressed as a cop broke into my aunt and uncle’s house and shot him 6 times and my aunt 5 times in a political act of terrorism. My aunt threw herself on her daughter, using her body as a shield to save her life,” Mat Ollig wrote on Facebook.
One of the bullets narrowly missed the Democratic senator’s heart, KARE11 reported.
Police responded to a 911 call at the residence in Champlin, Minn. just after 2 a.m. and discovered the Hoffmans wounded, rushing them to a hospital where they underwent surgery.
Ollig revealed his aunt and uncle were out of surgery and in stable condition. Yvette Hoffman was awake and alert in the hospital as of Saturday night, KMSP reported.
Hope Hoffman, who is in her 20s, was not hit in the shooting.
Bullet holes riddled the front of the Champlin home, the first house he allegedly targeted in his rampage before driving to Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Rep. Melissa Hortman’s home in Brooklyn Park.
Boelter is accused of fatally shooting Hortman and her husband, Mark, inside their home at around 3:30 a.m.
The gunman allegedly posed as a police officer and appeared at the front doorsteps of the Hortman residence and opened fire on the couple, officials announced
Rep. Hortman, 55, was pronounced dead at the scene and her husband died at a nearby hospital.
Brooklyn Park police were notified of the shooting in Champlin and did a check on the Hortmans when they found the masked gunman, wearing a uniform and badge, exiting the home.
Officers fired at the gunman, who took cover back inside the home, before he managed to escape.
Police opened up an urgent search for Boelter, setting up a 3-mile perimeter Saturday morning.
A lockdown of homes near the Brooklyn Park shooting was lifted late Saturday, but police urged residents to be alert and not confront any suspicious individuals, and not open doors to solo officers.
Boetler’s wife, Jenny Boetler, was detained by police for questioning Saturday after being pulled over with several relatives near Onamia, Minn, local KTSP reported.
Boelter was appointed to the non-partisan Workforce Development Council in 2016 by former Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton.
Gov. Tim Walz appointed Boelter to the Workforce Development Board in 2019. His term ran out in 2023.
Walz called the shootings on both Hortman and Hoffman a “politically motivated assassination.”
Boelter left behind a “manifesto” listing the names of 70 politicians, including Walz and his Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, and a stack of papers stating “No Kings” in reference to the nationwide anti-Trump protests, according to police.
The apparent hit list included abortion providers, clinics and Planned Parenthood, sources told The Post. Both of the Democrats he targeted were pro-choice.
Police are weighing whether Boetler held extreme anti-abortion views, the sources said.
Hortman was staunchly pro-choice and led the Minnesota House in passing the PRO Act in 2023, which codified the legality of abortion and other forms of reproductive health care. She also boosted funding for abortion clinics and passed protections for providers.
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