Dec 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 12

termined that a crime that had
been committed, and it was an
arrestable offense. So I told her
we’re going to take him into
custody. At this point, Josh had
been on scene for a few minutes
and he was with the male party
and in the apartment. So, I told
her just to hang tight. I’ll be right
back with her and get more of a
story from her, and that’s when
I walked into the apartment and
told him he was under arrest,”
Merrill said.
“That’s when shots were fired.
That whole call was very routine.
I don’t like to use the word
routine, but there were no red
flags, it was just a routine call,
a routine call that turned into a
deadly-force situation in about
two seconds,” he said.
Brian Nygard has been identified
as the man who killed Owen.
Deputy Merrill was able to fire
back as he was hit in the chest
by gunfire and Officer Olson was
struck in the ankle.
“I never thought I’d be put into
a situation like that, but yeah,
you prepare for it in training. You
know, we have good trainers
where we work and they emphasize,
you know, just kind of
being alert, watching your surroundings
and looking for signs,
but there was none of that in this
situation. It was just blink of an
eye. You had to make that decision,”
he said.
Deputy Merrill then worked to
save his partner’s life.
“Me and Josh, we did have a
special bond together. It was,
you spend more
time with the
guys, you know,
with him than
you do your own
family. So, yeah,
me and Josh were
super close,” he
said.
Deputy Merrill
commented on
how thankful he is
for the outpouring
of support he’s
received in the
community.
“It’s nearly seven
months out and
I’ve been working
night shifts
the last six weeks
and you still drive
around in the
night and you still
see those blue lights out in the
distance. You see a lot of flags,”
he said.
“It does give you that morale
boost to kind of keep pushing
forward,” he added.
He said he knew he always
wanted to go back to the job.
“It was a calling. My mom
worked at the local police department,
and I knew a lot of
them growing up and had some
police officers in the family. It
was something I always wanted
to do, give back, and serve,” he
said.
But he had his doubts after the
incident.
“It crossed my mind. I was like,
why am I doing this? Is it worth
it? I have a fiancée I’m getting
married to in the next couple of
weeks. I questioned it, but ultimately,
I was led back to, Josh
wouldn’t want me to quit … I
just didn’t want that incident to,
you know, wreck two lives … It
was hard to come back and kind
of regain my footing and feel
confident. You know, that took
time,” Merrill said.
The Minnesota 100 Club is a
nonprofit that provides emergency
financial assistance to
first responders who are killed
or critically injured in the line of
duty. This year alone more than
$200,000 has been given to the
families of Minnesota’s first responders.
This article originally appeared
at Alpha News.
The Blues 40th Anniversary Issue 79