OAN Staff Abril Elfi
3:38 PM – Saturday, June 28, 2025
Former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris attended the funeral of Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband.
On Saturday, more than a thousand people gathered to honor the lives of Hortman and her husband, Mark.
Governor Tim Walz (D-Minn.) announced during a press briefing on June 14th that Hortman (D-Minn.) and Mark had died in a shooting that “appeared to be a politically motivated assassination.”
State Senator John Hoffman (D-Minn.) and his wife, Yvette, were injured after also being shot multiple times.
Among those in attendance were Walz and his wife Gwen, former Governor Mark Dayton (D-Minn), Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan (D-Minn), and Attorney General Keith Ellison (D-Minn).
Governor Walz paid tribute to her legacy on Friday, noting she became the first woman to lie in state at the Minnesota Capitol rotunda in St. Paul. Biden also visited the Capitol to pay his respects.
“Melissa Hortman will be remembered as the most consequential speaker in Minnesota history. I get to remember her as a close friend, a mentor, and the most talented legislator I have ever known,” Walz said, according to the Associated Press. “For seven years, I have had the privilege of signing her agenda into law. I know millions of Minnesotans get to live their lives better because she and Mark chose public service and politics.”
In his remarks during the service, Walz described Hortman as both a dear friend and a devoted public leader.
“Maybe it is this moment where each of us can examine the way we work together, the way we talk about each other, the way we fight for things we care about,” Walz said, per AP. “A moment when each of us can recommit to engaging in politics and life the way Mark and Melissa did — fiercely, enthusiastically, heartily, but without ever losing sight of our common humanity.”
According to additional court filings obtained by WCCO, police officials discovered a storage container rented by suspect Vance Boelter in Minneapolis on June 10th. He had last “used his access code” to the locker the day before the shootings.
Investigators then discovered empty rifle cases, gun cleaning materials, and a bicycle inside the locker.
Boelter, 57, remains in custody and has not entered a plea to charges that could carry the federal death penalty.
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