The Minnesota House has passed a bill that would make it a felony for a person to impersonates a law enforcement officer.
This of course in direct response to the shooting death of former Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman, and her husband Mark, and the wounding of state Senator John Hoffman and his wife last summer.
Authorities say the alleged shooter, Vance Boelter wore a mask and pretended to be a police officer when he showed up in the middle of the night to their homes.
There was also powerful testimony from another lawmaker whose home Boelter visited, even though she wasn't home at the time.
"Both Anne and I would have opened that door," said DFL State Representative Kristin Bahner (Maple Grove). "Because we trust our police departments, we believe that they are the good guys. Embedded in us from the time we are small, that this is the cavalry coming to save us. That is the particularly heinous nature of what happened on June 14th."
A similar bill is moving through the Senate sponsored by Senator Hoffman himself after being seriously wounded in the politically-motivated attacks.
If passed, the crime would become a felony with a maximum prison sentence of three years, and the maximum prison sentence for a felony offense would increase by five years.
