Democratic lawmaker killed and another wounded in Minnesota in apparently ‘politically motivated’ attacks | Minnesota

Two Minnesota lawmakers have been shot in their separate homes.

One of the lawmakers – Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman – has died, as has her husband, Mark, the state’s governor, Tim Walz, confirmed at a press conference on Saturday. He said the shooting “appears to be a politically motivated assassination”.

Democratic state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were both shot multiple times and are out of surgery, and Walz said he was “cautiously optimistic” both will survive.

“This was an act of targeted political violence,” Walz said.

Walz said in a statement on Saturday morning that he was briefed on the “ongoing situation” in the suburbs of Champlin and Brooklyn Park, both of which are in the Minneapolis metropolitan area.

The shootings took place at a time when political violence has become more commonplace in the US, though the vast majority of Americans do not support it, according to a University of Chicago survey.