Josh Owen, 44, a White man, was working as a Pope County Sheriff’s deputy on the evening of April 15, 2023, when a call about domestic violence drew officers to an apartment building in Cyrus, Minnesota. The first officer on scene was a Starbuck police officer, and as more law enforcement arrived, the situation narrowed to one man inside who was told he was under arrest in connection with the domestic assault report.

Investigators later said the suspect was Bryan Nygard, 34, of Cyrus. As officers attempted to take him into custody, gunfire erupted in close quarters. Authorities described Nygard as pulling out a firearm and shooting first, and in the exchange Deputy Owen was hit multiple times. Another Pope County deputy and the Starbuck officer were also struck, but survived their injuries. Owen was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and died from his wounds that night. 
The shooting ended at the scene with Nygard dead from gunshot wounds after officers returned fire. Because the suspect died during the incident, there were no subsequent arrests connected to Owen’s death, and the focus shifted to the official investigation of the use of force. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension led the casework and released identifying details about the officers involved, the suspect, and the sequence of the encounter as it was reconstructed through evidence and interviews. 
In the months that followed, prosecutors reviewed the findings to decide whether any criminal charges were warranted against the officers who fired. Reporting later summarized that the county attorney concluded the deputies’ actions were justified based on the investigative record, reinforcing the narrative that Owen and the other officers were facing lethal fire in the moment they tried to make the arrest. In public remembrances, colleagues and community members returned again and again to the same image: a deputy who went into a domestic violence call expecting to protect someone else, and instead met a sudden, violent resistance that left a small town grieving. 
