Before her death, Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman helped train service dogs for veterans. One veteran said her support gave him a second life.
MINNEAPOLIS — As Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman became a respected name in state politics, she was also pouring into her community away from the public eye.
Arik Elsner, a military veteran battling post-traumatic stress disorder, remembers the moment everything shifted.
“I was really at a bad place,” Elsner said. “Then I got a call, and they said, ‘We think we have a match for you.’”
That match was Minnie, a highly trained service dog who has since become a critical part of Elsner’s recovery.
“She got me going again,” he said.
Elsner, who suffered from a lack of sleep, nightmares, and anxiety, began sleeping through the night with Minnie by his side.
But Minnie’s story began long before she met Elsner. For the first two and a half years of her life, Minnie was raised and trained by the Hortman family — Melissa, her husband, Mark, and their daughter — through the nonprofit Helping Paws, which trains assistance dogs for people with physical disabilities and veterans with PTSD.
“It just makes me think of how special their family was,” Elsner said.
That’s what made the news so devastating. Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in their home on Saturday, a shooting Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said was politically motivated. The shooting of two state lawmakers has left the local community and the nation stunned.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Elsner said. “I’m so sad. Everybody is.”
Christ For The Nations Institute, an interdenominational Bible college in southern Dallas, confirmed Monday that the gunman, Vance Boelter, 57, attended the school between 1988 and 1990, graduating with a degree in Practical Theology in Leadership and Pastoral.
At Helping Paws, where the family volunteered quietly and consistently for years, staff are choosing to focus not on Hortman’s political career, but on the way she showed up when no one was watching.
“She would walk into the building, and that public persona would just go away,” said Helping Paws Executive Director Alyssa Golob. “She was totally focused on training Gilbert.”
Gilbert was the golden retriever Melissa trained. When he was deemed too friendly to serve as a working dog, the family decided to keep him. Gilbert, too, was killed in the shooting.
“He was with his people till the very end,” Golob said.
For Elsner, every day with Minnie is a reminder of what the Hortmans gave — not just a dog, but a way forward.
“Every day that I have Minnie, I honestly think of them,” he said. “Because of the gift that I got from them. I will always think of them.”
Monday night, volunteers and staff at Helping Paws held a private memorial to process the death of the Hortmans and share their memories of the family. The non-profit announced it will dedicate a fundraiser to support service dogs and veterans in honor of the Hortmans and Gilbert.