Dec 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 12

SURVIVING THE
STREETS
AROUND THE COUNTRY
Partner of Fallen Minnesota
Deputy explains how domestic
call turned deadly in seconds.
By Liz Collin
Deputy Brody Merrill of the
Pope County Sheriff’s Office is
speaking out for the first time
about the tragic night that took
his partner and friend’s life.
Deputy Merrill joined Liz Collin
Reports after being named the
Police Officer First Responder
of the Year by the Minnesota 100
Club. He was recognized for his
heroic actions when a suspect
opened fire on Deputy Merrill and
two other officers on April 15.
Deputy Merrill was wounded, but
he rendered first aid to his partner,
Deputy Josh Owen, who died
from his injuries.
It was Owen’s 44th birthday.
Deputy Owen left behind a wife
and young son.
Merrill opened up about going
back to the job and his ongoing
commitment to keeping his community
safe.
Merrill was on the job with
Pope County for four years and
partners with Deputy Owen for
three of those years on the night
it all unfolded.
“It was a Saturday night. We’d
worked Friday night together.
It was a routine, pretty lowkey
night on Friday night and I
checked on at 5 p.m. Josh was
the six o’clock car.
Josh had an evening
routine. When
he came to work, it
was always check on,
come in the office,
have a cup of coffee,
talk with the guys.
Then, it was always
home for lunch with
Shannon and Rylan.
Shortly after he
had left, I was in the
deputies’ room and
got the call. It was a
third-party call of a
domestic, basically
somebody else called
it in, that they believed
a domestic was
occurring in Cyrus
and I began heading that way,”
Deputy Merrill recalled.
“Starbuck’s officer, Alex Olson,
acknowledged the call for service
and he began heading to
Cyrus as well. He was a couple
of minutes ahead of me. I
was running lights and sirens
and then Josh was a couple of
minutes behind me … and it’s a
20-mile drive from Glenwood,”
he added.
Merrill said Officer Olson
coded the call to mean that
everything was basically fine, so
Merrill cut his lights and sirens
and walked into the apartment
in Cyrus.
“I saw Alex was in there talking
with both of them, trying to
figure out what’s going on. Then,
I went in and asked the female
party to come with me, and I
went and interviewed her down
the hallway, just in the utility
room, and just got the basic
facts, tried to figure out what
happened, and ultimately de-
78 The Blues 40th Anniversary Issue