Killed Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman’s beloved dog, Gilbert, lay in state with her and her spouse during a public funeral Friday.
Hortman and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot by Vance Boelter, a 57-year-old Minnesota man disguised as a police officer, at their Minneapolis-area home in the early morning hours of June 14, according to federal prosecutors.
Gilbert was with his family during the shooting and was badly injured. The golden retriever had to be put down and his ashes were placed beside his owners’ coffins at Minnesota’s State Capitol Friday.
Its the first time a non-human has been known to lay in state at the Capitol.
Hortman is the first woman to have a funeral at the state Capitol. Minnesota previously granted the honor to 19 men, including a vice president, a secretary of state, senators, governors and a Civil War veteran, according to the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library.
Gilbert has received a flood of tributes alongside Hortman and her husband Mark.
Boelter is also charged over shooting and injuring a prominent Democratic state senator and his wife and authorities say Boelter visited two other Democratic lawmakers' homes without encountering them.
The dog's injuries were severe enough that surviving family members had him put to sleep at a veterinary clinic in the Hortmans' hometown of Brooklyn Park.
The clinic, Allied Emergency Veterinary Service, called Gilbert “sweet and gentle” and “deeply loved” on a GoFundMe site raising money for the care of local police dogs.
Hours after the shootings, a nonprofit that trains service dogs, Helping Paws Inc., posted a picture on Facebook of Gilbert with Hortman, both smiling.
The Hortmans provided a foster home to dogs to help train them to be service animals, and one of them, Minnie, had graduated to assisting a veteran.
But Helping Paws said in its post that Gilbert “eventually career changed."
One of Hortman's fellow lawmakers, Democratic Rep. Erin Koegel, told AP that the golden retriever had “flunked out of school" and that “Melissa wanted him to fail so she could keep him.”
Gilbert had been deemed ”too friendly" to be a service dog, KARE-TV reported.
Vance Boelter’s wife says family was ‘completely blindsided’ by shootings of Minnesota lawmakers
Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman to lie in state as suspect faces court date
Lawmakers on edge as statehouse security tightens after Minnesota shootings
Record number of hen harriers killed or missing in the past five years, RSPB warns
Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman to lie in state as suspect faces court date
NHS keeps patients away, new boss admits before reform plan unveiled
