Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman, who was wounded after a gunman dressed as a police officer attacked him inside his home last week, on Thursday recalled the moments leading up to the shooting, calling on Americans to “work together to return to a level of civility that allows us all to live peacefully.”
Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who are still recovering from the injuries they suffered in the shooting, said they returned home that evening accompanied by their adult daughter, Hope, after attending a dinner hosted by the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party on June 13.
“At approximately 2:00 a.m., we were all awakened by the sounds of pounding on the front door and shouts of someone seeking entry, identifying himself as a police officer,” the Hoffmans said in a statement.
When the door was opened, the three of them were standing in the entryway. The couple said the lawmaker lunged at the man as soon as he saw a gun pointed at him. John Hoffman was shot nine times, the family statement explains.
“As John fell, Yvette reached out to push the man and shut the door, succeeding before she was also hit eight times by gunfire,” it adds.
Their daughter, Hope, then locked the door before calling 911 to alert authorities of her father’s shooting.
“Her brave actions and quick thinking triggered the notice to public safety officials that a politically-motivated act was potentially underway,” her parents said.
John Hoffman is in critical but stable condition, while his wife is in stable condition as well, the family said.
After being informed of the shooting at the Hoffman residence, officers went to the nearby home of state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark, as a precautionary measure. But upon their arrival, they saw the gunman shoot Mark Hortman and exchanged fire with the shooter before he fled. They later recovered the bodies of the couple. Gov. Tim Walz (D) described their killings as a “politically motivated assassination.”
Vance Boelter was arrested Sunday after a two-day manhunt and faces charges of murder and attempted murder. Joseph Thompson, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, said Boelter stopped at “no less than four” homes of Democratic state legislators June 14 before ultimately fleeing under police gunfire. Officers also recovered notebooks referencing at least 45 state and federal elected officials, including “dozens and dozens” of Democrats as well as abortion providers, Thompson added.
The Hoffmans said they were “heartbroken” over the death of Hortman and her husband, while reflecting on the heightened level of risk public officials have to contend with.
“Choosing to work in the public sector, even in as limited a way as John’s career as a senator, has always meant sacrificing a level of privacy,” they said. “But now we are grappling with the reality that we live in a world where public service carries such risks as being targeted because someone disagrees with you or doesn’t like what you stand for.”
“As a society, as a nation, as a community, we must work together to return to a level of civility that allows us all to live peacefully,” they added.
