Mark and Melissa lie peacefully at the center of our state and our hearts today. Their memorial, guarded by service dogs and men and women in uniform, casts a momentary shadow over L'Étoile du Nord as we honor their life’s work to make Minnesota shine brighter for all.
— Governor Tim Walz (@governorwalz.mn.gov) June 27, 2025 at 2:52 PM
The Minnesota Star Tribune, “Day of mourning: Biden pays respects, thousands pass through Capitol in honor of Hortmans”:
Former President Joe Biden joined Minnesotans by the thousands who paid their respects to Melissa and Mark Hortman at the Minnesota Capitol on Friday, as the couple received one of the state’s highest honors.
Lying in state is a rare honor typically reserved for former governors, U.S. senators, and other high-ranking public officials. Melissa Hortman, a former House speaker and DFL House leader, was the first woman to receive such a tribute in the state’s history after she and her husband Mark were shot and killed earlier this month in their Brooklyn Park home. They were accompanied by their golden retriever, Gilbert, who was also shot and later euthanized.
Melissa Hortman was known as an unflashy, no-nonsense leader who took care of her team and wanted to get things done. Mark Hortman worked as a program manager at a tech firm in St. Louis Park and enjoyed mountain biking, competitive pool, home beer brewing and woodworking. They have two adult children, Colin and Sophie…
Former President Joe Biden paid respects to Melissa and Mark Hortman as they lie in state at the Minnesota Capitol.
— Minnesota Star Tribune (@startribune.com) June 27, 2025 at 5:36 PM
CBS:
… People began arriving before 10 a.m., standing on the Capitol steps to make sure they were in place for their chance to pay tribute to the lawmaker many say perfected the art of compromise — working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do what she thought was best for all Minnesotans…
Some came with flowers. Others wore their hearts on their sleeves, devastated by the loss of the people’s lawmaker who worked for decades to make the lives of all Minnesotans better.
“She was a personal hero, she was a great gift to the state of Minnesota and, I think actually, to the rest of the country,” said Jean Strauchon, of Minneapolis.
Talk of the impact Hortman had on the state was at the forefront of every conversation in the line that stretched for blocks.
“She got a lot of things done, she championed a lot of things that are important to a lot of people,” Ken Toenjes, of Anoka, said. “She was very good at compromising, and she was a wonderful person.”
A private funeral for the Hortmans will be held Saturday at 10:30 a.m. WCCO will livestream the service beginning at 10 a.m.
On behalf of the Hortmans’ children, Walz extended an invitation to former Vice President Kamala Harris. She will attend Saturday’s services but will not be speaking…
Two weeks ago, my friend and Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were taken from us in an awful act of political violence.
Today, the United States Senate unanimously supported a resolution honoring Melissa and Mark’s life and work.— Tina Smith (@smith.senate.gov) June 26, 2025 at 9:46 PM
We just unanimously passed a bipartisan bill honoring the lives of Melissa and Mark Hortman & condemning political violence. As their kids Sophie and Colin said – let's continue honoring their memory by doing something to make our community just a little better for someone else.
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar.com) June 26, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Gov. Tim Walz and his wife Gwen Walz pet a golden retriever during the lying in state of Melissa and Mark Hortman and their dog, Gilbert.
— Minnesota Star Tribune (@startribune.com) June 27, 2025 at 2:18 PM
War for Ukraine Day 1,219: The City Without Windows
H.E.Wolf
Thank you, Anne Laurie, for giving us a way to bear witness.
Jackie
I’m actually grateful FFOTUS has ignored this assassination. His ignoring this tragedy proves Biden is the bigger man. In SOOOO MANY WAYS.
Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom
This Canadian offers both her condolences and is honoured to bear witness.🕯
I think it’s so wonderful that they included the dog. He was a victim, too..😔
RaflW
It was quite moving to be there this afternoon. But I also feel like this assassination has marked a turn into a darker era for our nation — compounded by our radical, extreme Scotus — that has me about as pessimistic as I’ve ever been.
Not giving up or going fetal. But I am very grim.
RaflW
@Jackie: Good point. Thank you.
Lyrebird
Thanks AL, @H.E.Wolf: – good to bear witness to the wrongness and also to their shining example and to the existence of decent and honorable people.
trollhattan
This is what good people do. We will have good people running things again, eventually. Meanwhile, stay strong stay focused.
Hug your puppy/other furry pet. The Good Boy of Runner Girl’s BF’s family went in for teeth cleaning yesterday. During the procedure he vomited and aspirated it. Rapid pneumonia and other complications set in. Today he died.
The hell. He was two.
Steve LaBonne
@trollhattan: I am so sorry for their loss. I admit to being mildly terrified each year when our girls go in for their dental.
Steve LaBonne
I know it doesn’t make sense when he killed two people, but I feel especially enraged that the motherfucker shot the dog too. What did the fucking dog do to you, you pile of shit.
Raoul Paste
Biden shows up, with honor and dignity.
Trump plants one of his ex-wives in his golf course for the tax break.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I just wanted to say to every single Republican in the Senate who voted for the measure honoring Melissa and Mark…
Just get fucked already. You’re responsible for these deaths and yet you feel no responsibility at all because you are inhumane soulless pieces of shit.
I hope the worst for all of you, every single day, and look forward to celebrating your exiting this life.
narya
Biden showed up quietly, paid his respects. The clown, as usual, was not decent. I’m glad he didn’t show up and make it about himself.
Mai Naem mobile
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I’m surprised it was unanimous and it’s actually embarrassing that Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar have to make a point saying it’s was unanimous like that was something shocking or something. I figured Ted Cruz, Tuberville, Rand Paul or Mike Lee would have voted against the resolution.
Chetan Murthy
@Mai Naem mobile: Those assholes have very good reason to support Dems in denouncing political violence: they know that their own supporters will not be listening to those denunciations, so it’s a one-way message.
What would be not to like about that?
Msb
Thanks for posting. This was a milestone for women that I’d be glad to have avoided.
God bless and comfort the Hartman family and all who love them.
No One of Consequence
Respect and honor to the those taken by a murderer. I agree with others here, and remark to myself what that says about me as a person, the shot dog is particularly appalling to me. It may be that the animal was defending its pack, or was barking like mad — a target of necessity for someone attempting to do evil as quietly as possible. I am fairly sure that I could kill another human if I had to. I am not sure I could draw down on a dog. Even on one that was attacking me.
I hate that this country is in a place where this is anywhere any kind of acceptable to anyone. I hate that two innocent people are no longer here, because Evil has easy access to the greatest implements of death on Earth. That Evil was encouraged. What used to be tacit approval of such behavior, has grown a voice. That voice has developed into a chorus. And that chorus performs regularly, to the titillation of their audience. That those performances are constantly amped to the extreme with messages of political threat and of the desolation of the country if the opposition is allowed to exercise power. That that audience has developed a taste for performance, not because of the love of the music, not because of the enlightenment the performances instill, but because they are now addicted to the state of mind that the performances engender.
I fear that far from being the last two such voices to be silenced forever, that far worse is coming.
The junkies will eventually seek a greater high.
I know its real hard to see right now, but we all need to be voices for the light. To Witness.
-NOoC
cain
@Steve LaBonne:
Same. Cruelty is the point.
I’m pissed. Trump hasn’t said shit about political violence. We are going to have more of it because he wants to de-humanize us. We’re nothing to him.
We should be screeching to the skies about this stuff. Political violence against Dems, immigrants, non-white and LBGTQ.
We need to organize a country wide strike. We need to do figure this out. We need a very very strong signal to the powers that be that what is going on is completely unacceptable.
cain
@Raoul Paste:
It should be a shame that he didn’t show up. Every Dem president has shown up when someone dies like this.
No One of Consequence
@cain: With this orange son of a bitch, I think we should make an exception.
I am of the opinion that actually, Donald did everyone a favor by NOT attending. That him totally blowing it off was the best thing that could be expected of him. Literally.
Sure, it isn’t honorable, for a President, but then again, he isn’t one really, is he? Shouldn’t we be happy that he didn’t insist on pretending to be one at these observances?
I’m not being contrarian, or trying to have any kind of a fight, but actually, aren’t you kind of glad he didn’t?
-NOoC
No One of Consequence
edited to remove double post
Chetan Murthy
@No One of Consequence: It isn’t honorable, but then, it’s clarifying that he never acts with honor, and it would be muddying things if he were, this once, to act with honor, right?
He continues to be what we all knew him to be and expect him to be: the man without a single redeeming quality.
No One of Consequence
@Chetan Murthy: Exactly. He is inconsistent with almost everything else, but he is terribly predictable in that any given course of action will quite likely coincide with the least honorable path.
Its like the buffoon read the job description that American posts every four years, and decided that he would stuff himself down into such a minor post, but that once ensconced, he could manifest himself into what America really wanted and needed: a King.
Our Supreme Court is doing a bang up job with the assists.
-NOoC
opiejeanne
Biden is a very good man, and it’s good that the spewing yam didn’t show his face. The past two weeks it was as if the media just wanted this assassination to fade away.
Wasn’t there another dog that was killed at the Hortman’s house? I’m sure I read that it was another one they were working with in their Helping Paws program. It wasn’t the family pet, another dog with a name like Clifford?
NotMax
@narya
“This NEVER would have Happened if the State had a REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR.”
//
Rusty
This is a deeply sad reminder that the US has a long history of political violence. Assassinations of politicians are not uncommon here, but political violence includes all the threats, violence and murder of those that attempted to exercise their right to vote. 60 years ago this summer the march for the right to vote, free of violence, from Selma to Montgomery, had the marchers beaten, water cannoned, and even killed. I’m grateful for Biden beating witness for all of us to the terrible loss and continuing need to have basic dignity, empathy, caring, and dare I say even love for all of our country. It’s particularly needed as the body that should represent justice in the US, the Supreme Court, colludes with this administration to strip rights from immigrants, women, the trans community and so many more. May we grieve for the Hortmans and the country, and we should not let their deaths be in vain for a better nation.
Baud
Neither Trump nor the assassin nor the media nor the majority of society sees Democrats as fully human.
Baud
Photo
Juliet
I was there this afternoon – John Hoffman represented our area before new district lines were recently drawn and Melissa was the representative for another part of my suburban city. It was so shocking when we woke up to hear the news about the shooting. Melissa was very upfront about what she represented and even though she wasn’t my rep I was thrilled to have her in office. Today there were many golden retrievers inside and outside the Capital. The shooter killing the dog represented the worst in everything that he did. He is now complaining that he is being mistreated in jail because he has to sleep on a mat on the floor and the lights are always on. I can’t even begin to express my revulsion at him and his beliefs.
Kathleen
@Baud: You are absolutely right.
Kathleen
Very sad that it takes a tragedy of this magnitude to have an article totally focused on the behavior of loving, caring, capable human beings who accomplished so many good things in so many different ways. The article in the Minneapolis Star was outstanding and brought me to tears.
I wish there were more articles like this that celebrate decent human beings who are serious about governing and serving their communities. But it’s much cooler and more click baity to demonize politicians and public servants as “corrupt”.
Nelle
@RaflW: I am, sadly, on this bench with you.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Because they see the Democrats as the party of Black people, Jews, gay people, and women.
Everyone you you mention is white; and almost all of them are white men.
Professor Bigfoot
Grrrrr… suffer, bitch.
What would be the greater punishment? The sweet release of death, as wished for by McVeigh? Or, “you sit right there in that 6 foot by 10 foot steel box 23 hours a day for the next 50 years and you THINK about the shitty things you did?”
Professor Bigfoot
Thank you, AL, for giving us a place to bear witness.
But Baud is right— them sonsabitches don’t think we deserve to live. A LOT of them are already on police forces across the nation; and at this point they don’t even have to actually be cops, as this bastard demonstrated so clearly.
I haven’t given up yet; but I have opened a membership at a local gun range and have made it a point to practice at least once a week. Shooting is a losable skill, after all.
The Thin Black Duke
@Professor Bigfoot: My Beloved is a LMHC, and one day I accompanied her when she visited a client in jail. The atmosphere at that damned place was horrible; I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there.
No, I don’t want him executed; that would be a mercy. I want him to share a cell where him and another inmate have to take a shit in the same metal toilet until he dies.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
Yeah, I’ve been inside a prison. It’s pretty dreadful.
Professor Bigfoot
@The Thin Black Duke: Blessings on your beloved— I remember my sainted dad, the Reverend Bigfoot, making ministry visits just to the county jail in Tennessee; and I never ever want to see the inside of one of those places ever again; and those who can DO that are amazing people.
(btw- what is LMHC?)
Betty
@Professor Bigfoot: It is a licensed mental health counselor. I had to look it up. Doing God’s work by going into places where many have been abandoned.
Steve Gravelle
A good friend posted this the morning after the murders. I’m leaving his name off this, but I don’t think he’d mind passing this along:
In the next few days there will be hundreds of testimonials about House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and I’m the least important person to make one. But I have known Melissa Hortman since 1996. She was one of two people who talked me into becoming the Senate District Chair for the DFL in our area when the previous chair ran for public office. She even agreed to be my associate chair as a form of support. I used to tease her that I taught her everything I knew.
She was always the smartest person in the room. She was one of those people who could deal with six important things at the same time and make it look easy. She was funny and kind. She always made you feel that she was really interested in what you were saying, even if it was during complete chaos,
I saw her last night at the Humphrey Mondale Dinner and gave her a small hug as she was talking to some other VIPs. Six hours later she was shot.
zhena gogolia
@Steve LaBonne: I feel this way too. Totally irrational, but it’s how I feel.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Third.
JML
@Steve Gravelle: Yep. Melissa Hortman to a tee. She was always the smartest person in the room, but didn’t shove it in people’s faces or bully anyone (at least no one that didn’t deserve it). She could have used her law degree to become a partner at one of the Big Law firms, would have almost certainly become managing/senior partner and become rich as hell. Public service was more important to her, and she was great at it.
It was nice that Biden came out. He understands grief and how to mourn someone. He knows how to be a comfort.
columbusqueen
@zhena gogolia: And me as well. It takes a special kind of cruelty to kill an innocent animal.
kindness
I really miss the boring that Joe Biden’s term brought us. The folk who chose Trump because 1) Joe was old 2) Kamala was black/female are seriously twisted.
Liminal Owl
@Professor Bigfoot: Licensed Mental Health Counselor. To expand a little on what has already been said: Person with a master’s degree in psychology (so not a Psychologist, which term requires a doctorate in the US), who provides psychotherapy services. Much like a licensed social worker, but with less focus on large-system issues and (usually) more training in counseling.
Liminal Owl
@Baud: Fourth. The utter senselessness of it first caught me, and OK I guess it makes a horrible kind of sense if the dog was barking or in some other way trying to guard its people.. Still an inexcusable addition to the horror.
I just saw a news headline that the murderer is on suicide watch. Assuming that’s manipulative BS, I still hope that they guard him so he has no opportunity to take that easy way out, but does spend the rest of his life in a 6×10 steel box—preferably solitary.
Elizabelle
The statement issued by the Hortmans’ children, Sophie and Colin, in the aftermath of their parents’ (and pet’s) assassination:
“We are devastated and heartbroken at the loss of our parents, Melissa and Mark. They were the bright lights at the center of our lives, and we can’t believe they are gone. Their love for us was boundless. We miss them so much.”
“We want everyone to know that we are both safe and with loved ones. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have received, and we appreciate your respect for our family’s privacy as we grieve.”
“Our family would like to thank law enforcement for their swift action that saved others and for the coordination across communities that led to the arrest of the man who murdered our parents. We especially would like to thank the officers who were first on the scene to our parents’ home and their heroic attempts to rescue our mom and dad.”
“Our parents touched so many lives, and they leave behind an incredible legacy of dedication to their community that will live on in us, their friends, their colleagues and co-workers, and every single person who knew and loved them.”
If you would like to honor the memory of Mark and Melissa, please consider the following:
Plant a tree.
Visit a local park and make use of their amenities, especially a bike trail.
Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will do.
Tell your loved ones a cheesy dad joke and laugh about it.
Bake something — bread for Mark or a cake for Melissa, and share it with someone.
Try a new hobby and enjoy learning something.
Stand up for what you believe in, especially if that thing is justice and peace.
“Hope and resilience are the enemy of fear. Our parents lived their lives with immense dedication to their fellow humans. This tragedy must become a moment for us to come together. Hold your loved ones a little closer. Love your neighbors. Treat each other with kindness and respect. The best way to honor our parents’ memory is to do something, whether big or small, to make our community just a little better for someone else.”
Elizabelle
CBS local in Minneapolis will cover the funeral, which begins at 10 am CDT; 11 am EDT, and reair it in entirety at 8:00 pm EDT (7 pm Central).
How to watch
Elizabelle
The Youtube channel is really good. No advertisements; lots of background on Melissa and her family and career.
David Collier-Brown
@cain:
I’d make that even stronger. Fear is the point
dnfree
@Liminal Owl: My husband is a (retired) social worker who specialized in the mental health area, which uses the term “clinical”. So he was an LCSW in our state. Also an ACSW, which is a national body. Both require not just academic study, but also supervision in practice and passing a test.
No One of Consequence
@Liminal Owl: I don’t want him to go insane. At least any further along than he is already. I would see too deep a dive into insanity as a release. I want him in this shared reality that he so unalterably affected. I would like for him to live a long life to ponder and consider the ramifications of his actions. To live the rest of his life in a state of regret that few others will ever know.
If not for the abject immorality of his own actions, then for the direct impact those actions had on his personal freedom for the rest of his earthly days.
After that, ironically enough, I hope he finds out after death that his religion is actually true, and he gets to spend an even longer time being tortured endlessly and gleefully by truly immoral entities of great power.
Now wouldn’t that be Just? Ironic, sure. But Just.
-NOoC
No One of Consequence
And shame on me for denigrating this post with my preferences and less-than-charitable thoughts.
My apologies. Self-reflection is a skill I should practice before I hit the return key.
-NOoC
greenergood
@Professor Bigfoot: ‘
‘
Ruckus
@Steve LaBonne:
Not to be on the asshole’s side in any way but a good dog might have been trying to bit him, to protect his home and it’s owners. On the other hand he may just be a complete and utter asshole. And note that both things are possible at the same time…
Ruckus
@dnfree:
I was a city mental health counselor when I was in college on my way to a medical degree. After almost 4 years in the USN. Life got in the way and I ended up not going that direction. Eating seemed just a tad important.
It’s funny about life, and how many of us have a goal to follow a specific path in our working lives and often that path changes as time passes. We find out we really didn’t want what we thought we did. We find out that we really wanted that path but much of life got in the way. Some get on that path and find that it really wasn’t what they thought they wanted or wasn’t in some way their path. Sometimes all of the above.