A leaked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo issued months before Saturday’s shootings warned that public officials face a growing threat of being attacked at their personal residences.
Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed at their home in the suburbs of Minneapolis on Saturday morning.
The gunman, who was reportedly dressed like a cop, also shot State Senator John Hoffman and his wife multiple times at their home in nearby Champlin. They have since undergone surgery. Officials report they are “cautiously optimistic” they will survive.
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Just months ago, DHS analysts warned that high-profile officials were increasingly “vulnerable to attack” in their own homes as potential attackers shift away from traditional targets such as “government buildings and corporate offices,” in a confidential memo obtained by ABC News.
Noting “recent uptick in online messaging promoting attacks at their homes, doxing and swatting incidents, and several notable attacks,” the memo, which leaked in March, described an escalating threat from potential attackers targeting public figures where they live. Private homes often lack more “robust security measures” and are “accessible with limited obstacles,” the memo suggested.
The DHS analysts also pointed to “overall increased political polarization” and “the prevalence of conspiracy theories targeting industry and government officials,” adding that the complex mix of motives makes it harder for law enforcement to detect and disrupt plots.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz described Saturday’s attacks as an “act of targeted political violence.”
Police were called to Hoffman’s home at around 2 a.m. local time and provided life-saving measures to the state senator and his wife before they were transported to a hospital, CNN reports.
Around 3:35 a.m., officers conducting a proactive check on Hortman’s home were fired upon by a man exiting the residence. The gunman fled on foot during the ensuing shootout.
Inside the suspect’s car—which was left at Hortman’s residence and resembled a police vehicle equipped with lights—officers found a hit list naming “many lawmakers,” authorities said, according to ABC News.
One of the most high-profile recent attacks at a public official’s home occurred in October 2022, when Paul Pelosi, the husband of then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, was attacked by a hammer-wielding intruder at their San Francisco residence.
In another case, two men were convicted of conspiracy charges in 2022 for plotting to abduct Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home in 2020.
