Biden joins thousands paying final respects to slain Minnesota lawmaker and husband
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Former US president Joe Biden paying his respects to Democratic Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark at the Minnesota Capitol on June 27.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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ST PAUL, Minnesota – Thousands of mourners, including former US president Joe Biden, filed through Minnesota’s state Capitol Rotunda on June 27 to pay final respects to slain lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, who were gunned down by an assassin
The couple lay in state in St Paul on the eve of a private funeral set for the morning of June 28, two weeks after a man impersonating a police officer shot them to death at their home in what the authorities are treating as a politically motivated murder.
For several hours, members of the public lined up in a column of mourners stretching across the front plaza of the state Capitol building and along an adjacent boulevard.
After entering the building, people walked single-file past the Hortmans’ flower-bedecked caskets. A portrait of each stood next to their respective coffins.
Perched between them was an urn bearing the remains of their golden retriever, Gilbert, along with a photograph of the pet. The dog, too, was shot in the attack and later euthanised.
Mr Biden arrived at the statehouse late in the afternoon. After the public was cleared from the rotunda for security purposes, the Democratic former US president was ushered in alone. He paused for a moment in front of the caskets, then exited the building.
Following his departure, the rotunda was reopened to the public, and the procession of mourners resumed. Still more people joined the line outside, hoping for a chance to pay their respects. The viewing was scheduled to end at 5pm local time (6am Singapore time).
Representative Hortman, the top-ranking Democrat in the Minnesota House, became the first woman to lie in state in the St Paul Capitol Rotunda, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. Her husband was believed to be the first person other than a military figure or public official to be so honoured.
The suspect in their June 14 killings
The accused gunman was arrested on the night of June 16 following a massive two-day manhunt that was the largest in state history.
Boelter faces state and federal murder charges. According to prosecutors, investigators recovered notebooks from his car and residence that included the names of dozens of Democratic legislators
The shootings unfolded against a backdrop of increasing political violence in the US in an era of extreme social and partisan polarisation. REUTERS
