Minnesota Attacks: Protective Intelligence Lessons
By TorchStone VP, Scott Stewart
At about 2:00 am on June 14, police in Champlin, Minnesota, received a 911 call reporting a shooting. Responding police officers found Minnesota state Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette had been shot multiple times inside their home. Senator Hoffman had been shot nine times, and his wife eight. The two were rushed to the hospital and, after multiple surgeries, survived the attack. Security camera video from the Hoffman home showed that the gunman was dressed as a police officer and wore a rubber mask over his face.
According to a federal affidavit filed on June 15, less than 20 minutes after shooting Senator and Mrs. Hoffman, the attacker approached the home of an unidentified state elected official in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Video from the home shows that the attacker rang the doorbell several times and yelled, “This is the police, we have a warrant.” The official and her family were not home and did not answer the door. The attacker then left the residence.
Shortly after the attacker left the residence in Maple Grove, an officer conducting a check on the home of yet another state elected official in New Hope, Minnesota, spotted a black SUV that appeared to be a police vehicle parked on the street near that residence. The officer passed the vehicle to go to the house, and by the time other officers arrived, the vehicle was gone. The driver of the black SUV was reportedly bald and appeared to have been the attacker
In the wake of the Hoffman attack in Champlin, police in nearby Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, also proactively conducted a check on the home of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman. As the officers arrived at the residence, they found a vehicle with flashing emergency lights parked in the driveway. The officers then saw a man dressed like a police officer shoot repeatedly at a man standing in the door of the residence. The man then turned and fired at the officers before entering the home. The suspect ran out of the back of the residence before the perimeter could be secured. Representative Hortman and her husband, Mark, were both pronounced dead at the scene.
Both Senator Hoffman and Representative Hortman were Democrats. A search of the vehicle the suspect abandoned in the driveway discovered several additional firearms, including three rifles, plus notebooks containing the names and addresses of at least 45 politicians, many of whom were Democratic politicians and abortion proponents.
The notebooks also contained notes the attacker made discussing how he conducted research to obtain the addresses of the officials he wanted to target. These notes included a list of data aggregator sites, as well as mentions of public records such as country property tax databases.
There was also a flyer for the scheduled “No Kings” protest, indicating that it may also have been a potential target for the gunman. Authorities noted that they had little doubt the attacker would have continued his killing spree had the police in Brooklyn Park not arrived at the Hortman home and interrupted him, forcing him to go on the run. The fact that the attacker visited two other homes between the Hoffman and Hortman residences suggests that he had no intention of stopping soon.
After an extensive manhunt, the suspect (whom we choose not to name) was captured on the evening of June 15 near his farm in Green Isle, Minnesota. He has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder in state court and stalking and murder in federal court.
Trends
The attacks against Senator Hoffman and Representative Hortman follow trends we have been tracking in our executive protection intelligence reports. Firstly, the attacks happened at the victims’ homes.
As we noted in our 2024 Annual Executive Protection Intelligence Report in February, the residence was the most common place where high-profile individuals have been targeted. This is because the residence is a known location where the target spends a substantial, and largely predictable, portion of each day.
Secondly, residences tend to have less security than office buildings, meaning that targets are more vulnerable to attack at home than in the office. Also, since most people sleep at their residences, attackers can also take advantage of the darkness of night to help conceal their attack cycle activity.
The second trend we have been tracking is an uptick in attacks targeting government officials at all levels. In our February 2025 Executive Protection Intelligence Report, we noted that for the first time since we began tracking statistics, state and regional-level government officials were the most targeted group for the month.
These attacks in Minnesota and the April 2025 arson attack against the residence of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro attest to the seriousness of the threat facing state-level government officials in the U.S. at this time.
Mitigation Measures
As we’ve previously noted, the most important step to protect against threat actors attacking a person at their home is to carefully protect the address of the principal’s residence. Information removal companies can be very useful for removing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from data aggregator sites, but once an address is posted on the internet, it is very hard to erase it, even with the help of a very effective information removal company such as our partners at 360 Privacy. It is even more difficult to hide an address if it appears in official government documents such as tax records or filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Election Commission.
Because of this, it is important for high-profile individuals to buy their residences under an innocuous LLC or other vehicle to disassociate themselves from the property. Transferring it to an LLC after it is purchased is not effective. The LLC should not include the family’s name or be tied to a corporate or other address that would connect it to the principal. Also, if more than one property is owned, a separate LLC should be used for each.
It is also important that people are careful not to “dox” themselves by posting photos of their homes or other information on social media that could help a threat actor identify—or verify—the address of their residence.
At TorchStone, we conduct public profile assessments on our clients to help identify what personal information, such as addresses, is available on the internet and provide guidance on how to reduce vulnerability.
In the past, we’ve written about the importance of having proper residential security measures. Doors, locks, and alarms are important, but the Minnesota attacks demonstrate how proper residential security procedures are just as important as physical security measures. A lock or alarm is of little use if it is not being used, and good physical security can be compromised by sloppy procedures. In this case, it appears the attacker’s use of a private security vehicle with lights intended to mimic those of a police vehicle, and a uniform similar to that of a police officer, may have enticed the victims to let down their guard and open their doors to the gunman.
The use of a ruse, such as pretending to be a police officer, a mailman, or a deliveryman to get someone to open their front door, is very old, and has been featured in a number of historical attacks and Hollywood movies.
One way homeowners can protect themselves against this type of ruse is to first resist the urge to open their door and request that the purported officer show their credentials containing their photo, name, and agency to the peephole or video camera. If any doubt remains, call the non-emergency phone number for the department or 911 and request verification that a unit was sent to the residence. A similar routine should be followed for unexpected deliveries, and every member of the household should be taught this procedure.
A Final Point
The Hoffmans were each shot multiple times and yet survived. As I have noted before, unfortunately, many people are inordinately influenced by the way gunshot wounds are portrayed in the media. Contrary to that portrayal, most wounds are not immediately fatal and rarely immobilize the victim right away.
Even a person with a critical wound can continue to fight for some time, and many seriously wounded people can continue to move to escape the attack site to safety.
Sadly, because of this misperception, it is not unusual for wounded people to drop to the ground and freeze in panic or go into shock once they’ve been shot. This gives the shooter an opportunity to approach them for a point-blank kill shot.
The Hoffmans are yet another example that most gunshots are survivable, especially if the bleeding can be controlled, and people must continue to take action to protect or save themselves even after they have been wounded.