The gunman who shot and killed Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband at their home also killed their family’s beloved rescue dog, according to a fellow lawmaker.
The Former Democratic House Speaker, 55, and her husband Mark, 58, were allegedly gunned down early Saturday morning by suspected political assassin Vance Luther Boelter, who also wounded state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife before he was finally captured Sunday following an intense 43-hour manhunt Sunday.
Boelter also allegedly shot the family’s beloved golden retriever, Gilbert, at the Brooklyn Park home.
Erin Koegel, a member of the Minnesota House since 2017, said one of the first things Hortman’s children had to do after the shooting was “put down [Gilbert] after learning their parents had been murdered,” she posted on X.
Hortman spent years doing volunteer work training service dogs for veterans and was a foster home trainer for a local dog shelter called Helping Paws, where she was introduced to Gilbert.
Helping Paws posted a message on its Facebook page, along with a 2022 photo of a Hortman smiling with her arm around Gilbert.
“Our hearts break for all loss of life,” the animal rescue said.
Boelter, a 57-year-old former appointee of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was arrested in a field in rural Minnesota without incident early Sunday morning, ending the “largest manhunt in the state’s history,” Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley told reporters.
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