The federal charges describe eerily similar crimes: Well-planned assassinations by seemingly everyday citizens with no serious criminal history targeting the political and socioeconomic infrastructure of America.
And the targets of those assassinations were Minnesotans.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson of Maple Grove was shot dead last December on the streets of New York City, leading to a five-day manhunt and the arrest of Luigi Mangione.
On June 14, in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, a gunman shot and killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and seriously wounded Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Two days later, Vance Boelter was arrested.
Prosecutors allege Mangione and Boelter believed the murders carried a greater meaning.
Robert Pape is a University of Chicago professor who has studied political violence for 30 years. In the past five years, he said, the dynamic of that violence has changed in America and Minnesota is at the epicenter.
He referred to this time as the “era of violent populism.”
In a phone interview, Pape said the acts attributed to Mangione and Boelter fit that description.