A naked man with apparent mental health issues was found in the Minnesota State Capitol late at night, officials said Saturday, raising questions about security after the top Democrat in the state House was killed in what authorities have called a political assassination. He was later arrested after returning to the Capitol grounds two more times on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The discovery in St. Paul just six weeks after the fatal shooting<\/a> of Democratic former House Speaker Melissa Hortman prompted the top House and Senate Republican leaders to demand answers about how it happened and what steps might be taken to prevent it from happening again.<\/p>\n The man was found in the Senate chamber around 11:30 p.m. Friday, the chief House sergeant-at-arms, Lori Hodapp, said in an email to representatives.<\/p>\n \u201cThe individual made statements indicating a belief that he was the Governor, among other remarks, and was found disrobed,\u201d Hodapp said.<\/p>\n Capitol Security responded promptly, she said, and the man was taken to nearby Regions Hospital for evaluation. He was deemed not to be a threat to himself or others and was released, but he returned to the Capitol grounds at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n The head of the Minnesota State Patrol, Col. Christina Bogojevic, said the man was nonviolent when he was spotted the second time, and he was taken back to Regions for another evaluation and apparently released.<\/p>\n Then late Saturday, the State Patrol said that the man had returned to the Capitol grounds again \u2014 for the third time in 24 hours \u2014 and was arrested.<\/p>\n Dominic Terrell Peace, 36, was taken into custody without incident just before 7:30 p.m. He was being held in the Ramsey County jail awaiting extradition in connection with an arrest warrant from Wisconsin. The State Patrol said it worked throughout the day with Wisconsin officials on the extradition issue.<\/p>\n \u201cAn investigation is currently underway to determine how the individual gained access to the Senate Chamber and Capitol facilities after hours,\u201d Hodapp wrote in the earlier memo to lawmakers before Peace\u2019s arrest. \u201cWe are examining all aspects of this incident to address any security concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n The sergeant-at-arms also said the man had an active probation-violation warrant from Wisconsin on his record, but that it did not initially allow for his transfer. It has since been updated, she added \u201cand appropriate measures will be taken upon next contact.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating that an individual with a criminal history was able to allegedly vandalize the Capitol and unlawfully trespass in the Senate chamber without being taken into custody,\u201d Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring, said in a statement before Peace\u2019s arrest. \u201cAnyone who trespasses in any building \u2014 let alone the State Capitol \u2014 should be arrested and prosecuted for breaking the law, and I look forward to learning why this did not take place in this highly disturbing incident.\u201d<\/p>\n GOP Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, of East Grand Forks, also expressed disappointment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are living in a heightened threat environment,\u201d Johnson said in a statement. \u201cI expect the State Patrol and Capitol Security teams will thoroughly review what happened and give Capitol officials and staff, and the public, their assurances that this will not happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n Bogojevic said there was no immediate indication that Peace broke into the Capitol, which is open to the public during business hours. She said officials were reviewing security video to try to determine his exact whereabouts while he was inside.<\/p>\n \u201cThe safety and well-being of everyone who works at and visits the Capitol is our top priority,\u201d Bogojevic said in a statement. \u201cWe take this situation seriously and are committed to understanding how it occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n Legislative and administration leaders have begun discussions about whether security at the Capitol and for lawmakers should be tightened following the June 14 shootings that left Hortman and her husband dead, and a state senator and his wife seriously injured. Authorities say they were attacked at their suburban Minneapolis homes by a man disguised as a police officer.<\/p>\n The alleged gunman, Vance Boelter<\/a>, 57, of Green Isle, is facing federal<\/a> and state murder charges and other counts. His lawyer says he plans to plead not guilty at his federal arraignment, which has been rescheduled to Aug. 7 from Sept. 12.<\/p>\n Originally Published: July 26, 2025 at 2:36 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A naked man with apparent mental health issues was found in the Minnesota State Capitol late at night,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":96967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[4219,63671,210,18598,517,3663,63669,50,63670,17636,9656,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-96966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-crime-public-safety","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-melissa-hortman","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-minnesota","14":"tag-minnesota-legislature","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-ramsey-county","17":"tag-st-paul","18":"tag-uncategorized","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114925787839760300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}