Walter Palmer is the Twin Cities dentist who was on an expedition in Zimbabwe that resulted in the killing of a 13-year-old lion named Cecil, a beloved tourist attraction and the subject of research by academics from Oxford University.
A big-game hunter from the Twin Cities acknowledged Tuesday that he killed a beloved lion in Zimbabwe with a bow and arrow, but said he regrets what he did.
In Zimbabwe, two men implicated in the killing of Cecil were in court Wednesday. In Bloomington, Dr. Walter Palmer was referring his patients to other dentists for the time being.
"Unfortunately it was too late to apprehend the foreign poacher as he had already absconded to his country of origin," Zimbabwe's wildlife minister said at a Friday news conference.
The Florida vacation home of Dr. Walter Palmer was vandalized by someone angry with the Eden Prairie dentist for killing a prized lion during a hunt last month in Zimbabwe.
Long before he was accused of poaching an African lion named Cecil, Walter Palmer was stalking suspected poachers on his private hunting land in northwestern Minnesota.
Grace Mugabe holds no official post with the government, leaving it uncertain whether her view of Cecil's death would hold sway with her nation's legal authorities.