The murderer of a local American elected official and her husband, murdered in June 2025, was sentenced Thursday to life imprisonment, for what the judge described as an “attack on democracy,” reported the American press.
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Vance Boelter, 59, disguised himself as a police officer to kill Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota (north). He had previously seriously injured another elected official, John Hoffman, as well as his wife.
Both elected officials were Democrats.
This official photo dated January 8, 2019, obtained from the Minnesota State Legislature on June 14, 2025, shows Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman.
AFP
He pleaded guilty in June to six counts, including two counts of murder by firearm.
Judge John Tunheim sentenced Vance Boelter to two life terms in prison, plus 40 years without the possibility of parole, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
“This was a brutal attack on elected officials and their families, which truly constitutes an attack on democracy itself,” the judge said, according to the newspaper.
“I miss my mother. I miss my father,” the Hortman couple’s daughter, Sophie, said in court, according to the Star Tribune. “I miss believing in the goodness of humanity.”
Melissa Hortman et son mari, Mark.
Getty Images via AFP
The killings have reignited fears of a surge in political violence in the United States.
Donald Trump was notably the target of several assassination attempts in less than two years and ultraconservative influencer Charlie Kirk was shot dead in September 2025 on a university campus. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home was burned down last year.
