The children of Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman are speaking out on their parents' murders. “They were the bright lights at the center of our lives, and we can’t believe they are gone," Sophie and Colin Hortman wrote in a statement obtained by PEOPLE Monday.

Lawmakers nationwide expressed shock and outrage over the shooting deaths of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and the shootings of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette.

Boelter, 57, allegedly posed as a police officer and assassinated state House DFL leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in the middle of the night Saturday, according to authorities. He is also charged with shooting state Sen.

Melissa Hortman will always be remembered as a giant in Minnesota politics and she’ll live forever in the memories of thousands of people whose lives she touched.

When a longtime Minnesota lawmaker died after a battle with ALS, former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman helped pass historic legislation in search of a cure.

EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump’s vainglorious birthday parade masquerading as a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army may get drenched in a rainy DC this Flag Day, but the financial sun is shining a bit brighter for some suffering Hollywood vendors. A plethora of prop houses in and around LA received a much-needed injection …

But there was a caring, apolitical gracefulness as well to Hortman, colleagues said. Garofalo said that in the days after the 2022 elections, when Democrats took control of state

Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, were shot and killed early Saturday morning in “what appears to be a politically-motivated assassination,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said at a news conference Saturday.