Bill to make impersonating police a felony passes in Minnesota House

A bill that would stiffen penalties for impersonating police in the wake of last year's Minnesota lawmaker shootings passed in the state House on Thursday.

The bill, which has bipartisan support and the backing of state law enforcement organizations, was introduced last month by DFL state Sen. John Hoffman, who survived being shot nine times by alleged attacker Vance Boelter in the early morning hours of June 14, 2025, inside his Champlin home.

Under the bill, penalties tied to impersonating a member of law enforcement that are considered a misdemeanor would be upgraded to a gross misdemeanor, and a gross misdemeanor offense would become a felony. A companion bill unanimously passed in the state Senate in March.

Hoffman's wife, Yvette, was shot eight times in the attack, and their daughter Hope "narrowly avoided being struck by bullets," according to court documents filed earlier this month in the family's civil suit against Boelter.

"I was almost killed. My wife was almost killed. My daughter had a gun placed in her face by an individual who looked like a police officer, had a vehicle that looked like a police vehicle, yelled 'this is police,' license plate said 'police' on it. I was hearing everything that you think a police officer is," said John Hoffman last month while testifying in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. "He was not a police officer."

Soon after the Hoffmans were shot, Boelter is accused of driving to Brooklyn Park and fatally shooting DFL Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. The Hortmans' dog was also shot and was later euthanized.

John Hoffman also introduced a bill this session that would make it mandatory for used police vehicles to have all equipment and markings removed before being resold to those not in law enforcement.

Boelter faces multiple charges of murder and attempted murder on both the state and federal level, and could be handed a death penalty.