{"id":43707,"date":"2025-06-19T01:06:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T06:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=43707"},"modified":"2025-06-19T02:58:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T07:58:49","slug":"hundreds-gather-to-remember-slain-minnesota-lawmaker-and-husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=43707","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds gather to remember slain Minnesota lawmaker and husband"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Hundreds of people, some clutching candles or carrying flowers to lay in front of a memorial, gathered outside Minnesota\u2019s Capitol on Wednesday evening for a vigil to remember a prominent state lawmaker and her husband who were gunned down at their home<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a brass quintet from the Minnesota Orchestra played, Gov. Tim Walz wiped away tears and comforted attendees at the gathering for former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, who were killed early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin Hortman, the Hortmans\u2019 son, embraced Walz and lay a photo of his parents on the memorial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memorial, which sprang up outside the Capitol after the killings, features flowers, American flags, photos and sticky notes with such messages as, \u201cThank you for always believing in me and in Minnesota\u201d and \u201cWe got this from here. Thank you for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday’s vigil also included a Native American drum circle, a string quartet and the crowd singing \u201cAmazing Grace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the gathering, there was a heavy police presence, with law enforcement blocking off streets leading up to the Capitol and state troopers standing guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event didn’t include a speaking program and attendees were instructed not to bring signs of any kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man charged in federal and state court with killing the Hortmans, Vance Boelter<\/a>, is also accused of shooting another Democratic lawmaker, Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, at their home a few miles away in Champlin. They survived and are recovering. Federal prosecutors have declined to speculate about a motive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boelter\u2019s attorneys have declined to comment on the charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hortman had served as the top House Democratic leader since 2017, and six years as speaker, starting in 2019. Under a power-sharing deal after the 2024 election left the House tied, her title became speaker emerita and Republican Rep. Lisa Demuth became speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walz has described Hortman as his closest political ally and \u201cthe most consequential Speaker in state history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hortmans were alumni of the University of Minnesota, which held a midday memorial gathering on the Minneapolis campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca Cunningham, the university’s president, spoke during the event about the grief and outrage people are grappling with along with questions about how things got to this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have the answers to these questions but I know that finding answers starts with the coming together in community as we are today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funeral information for the Hortmans has not been announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Hundreds of people, some clutching candles or carrying flowers to lay in front of a memorial, gathered outside Minnesota\u2019s Capitol on Wednesday evening for a vigil to remember a prominent state lawmaker and her husband who were gunned down at their home. As a brass quintet from the Minnesota Orchestra played, Gov. Tim […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":43708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[26687,1557,33664],"class_list":["post-43707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-gather","tag-hundreds","tag-remember"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43709,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43707\/revisions\/43709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}