When Sandy Pappas thinks of John Hoffman, she thinks of the gregarious officemate who keeps snacks at the ready for visitors.
A longstanding state senator from St. Paul, Pappas was horrified to learn that the Champlin senator and his wife Yvette had been shot multiple times early Saturday morning by a masked gunman.
“It’s going to be a difficult recovery,” said Pappas on Tuesday, in a phone interview. “His office door is always open to everyone. He’s kind of party central. He’s always got lots of candy and doughnuts.”
The Hoffmans survived, and alleged killer Vance Boelter — accused in the shooting deaths of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark — was taken into custody Sunday night after what’s been called the largest manhunt in state history.
The following interview with Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, has been edited for length and clarity:
These are difficult circumstances. How are you holding up?
“It was worse the last three days. Today, I had to go back to life.”
Undated courtesy photo, from the 2025-26 Minnesota Legislative session, of Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Senate)
Let’s clarify some Internet rumors. We keep hearing Boelter had a long list of names, mostly of elected officials he planned to target, but now we’re being told there was no sequential list, just names scattered throughout his writings.
“I’m hearing there were three or more notebooks they had to go through: ‘Here’s somebody. Here, he has their address. Here, he doesn’t have their address.’ There was no order of priority.”
And the police spoke with you personally? Did they visit you on the day of the shootings?
“The chair of the St. Paul delegation, Erin Murphy, called me at 5:30 a.m. Saturday. I dozed off and on, and then three cops made a wellness check at 8:30 a.m. They had accessed my office. … The (St. Paul Police) deputy chief called me and then he said he was going to put a squad car on my street. I figured I was on the list. I didn’t really know. I also spoke with (Ramsey County Sheriff) Bob Fletcher.”
That must have been a scary morning.
“It was stressful. I feel like I was mostly devastated over the deaths. We found out (about the Hortmans’ deaths) around noon. And the injuries to the Hoffmans. I personally felt like I was safe, just because of my circumstances. I live in a condominium building. Most (lawmakers) in houses left their house and went somewhere else. Everyone came back either Sunday night or Monday morning, as soon as he was caught.”
We’ve seen political violence in this country before. Sometimes there are concrete changes to security measures, or changes in public perception, public policy and who runs for office. Will this fear fade, or is this more of a turning point?
“I think this is a turning point. We’ve been debating additional security for a while. We haven’t really put money behind the plans. There is $2 million in the (bonding) bill, but the security (total would be) higher. We lock up offices like Minnesota Management and Budget, but the Capitol is what’s so wide open for visitors. I think there’s going to be serious discussions about, do we allow guns in the Capitol? Do we set up a screening system? Do we have more boots on the ground? I think all those things are going to be discussed.”
Will this have a deterring effect on who runs for office?
“I think people are going to have second thoughts, especially women. Some of my colleagues, they’ve been stalked. They’ve had things like that happen to them. A lot of members are looking at (adding) home security if they don’t already have them. Hoffman did, and that was fortunate (in capturing images of Boelter).”
It used to be that you could look up your state lawmaker’s home address on the House and Senate websites as a way to show they live in the district and they’re your neighbor. Is that gone for good?
“That’s all been wiped. The way to show to my constituents that I’m accessible, I have my cell phone on my business cards, and my address is on my literature. My colleagues have been talking about DeleteMe, (an Internet data privacy service) but I haven’t looked into that.”
Will you and other lawmakers take steps to ensure your personal safety?
“My husband likes to joke that he’s my bodyguard. He actually was Military Police in Vietnam and he works at TSA. I’ve warned people in my office they need to be extremely cautious. I probably will be more cautious walking home from the Capitol after dark. It’s a 10-minute walk to where I live, and it feels nice to decompress after a session, but my colleagues are always offering me rides.
“I go to Israel twice a year. My daughter sent me an email from Israel and said ‘Mom, what’s going on, are you safe?’ I said, ‘Wait a minute, are you guys sitting in your bomb shelter?’ They were, because of the bombs falling from Iran. … It’s something that we need to be aware of, that our kids are in danger, and know they worry about their parents being in danger.”
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