- The wife of a fallen police officer told Governor Walz not to come to the funeral
The widow of a slain police officer didn’t want Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz anywhere near her husband’s funeral.
Walz was more than willing to accommodate her request.
Minnesota resident Shannon Owen received a call from Walz in 2023 after her husband Joshua was killed in the line of duty as the governor offered his condolences.
Owen had some nice words for the governor, telling him he would be removed from her husband’s funeral if he tried to attend.
“You have never been a supporter of police and I would appreciate it if you just don’t come near my city,” she said in a partial recording of her phone call, included in the Alpha News documentary Minnesota v. We the people.
Shannon Owen, the wife of a Minnesota police officer who was killed in the line of duty last year, told Gov. Tim Walz not to attend her husband’s funeral because he would be escorted out.
She also informed Walz, who is now the Democratic vice presidential candidate, that if he tried to come to the funeral, she would “make sure I escort you out of here.”
“No, I fully understand and respect your rights,” Walz responded during the phone calls, just days after Owen’s husband was killed.
“Our officers are here to support you in any way we can,” he said before the call ended abruptly.
Owen said she didn’t say much during the conversations and “just let him ramble because that’s what politicians do.”
The conversation highlights a major problem for Walz — at least in his home state of Minnesota — in law enforcement.
Asked if he was qualified to be the next vice president, Owen said, “Absolutely not.”
“I don’t like the way he’s handling the police situation, the military situation. “I just feel like he’s a puppet now,” she said. according to De Telegraaf. “He doesn’t really talk about what he really wants to do.”
Video of Owen on the phone with Governor Walz shows her telling him, “You have never been a supporter of law enforcement and I would appreciate it if you just don’t come near my town.”
Deputy Sheriff Josh Owen was killed in a shootout while responding to a domestic violence call in the spring of 2023. He planned to leave the department shortly before his death due to reforms that made his job increasingly dangerous, his wife claims.
She accused Governor Walz of recruiting a “nice guy” after he joined Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 ticket.
Minnesota has a huge citizen versus police problem after it became the basis for calls to abolish police in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer.
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in 2020 sparked days of riots that spawned the Black Lives Matter movement, which put Walz in the crosshairs as governor.
Civil rights activists say he didn’t do enough to prevent police from responding to violence in Minneapolis and St. Paul in the wake of Floyd’s death. But Republicans accused him of going too far to prevent law enforcement from doing their job.
Five years later, opinions remain sharply divided about Walz’s response.
Minneapolis lost 40 percent of its force in the wake of Floyd’s death and the dismantled police movement.
Owen says her husband, a military veteran, planned to leave the force “right before he died.”
She said he was upset by law enforcement reforms that made his job too dangerous.
Governor Walz, who is now running for vice president, called Owen to express his condolences and when told to stay away from the funeral he said, “No, I fully understand and respect your rights. Our agents are here to support you in any way you need’
Deputy Sheriff Josh Owen was responding to a domestic violence incident when he was killed in the line of duty.
Bodycam footage shows the deputy walking into an apartment where two officers were already present.
The killer had a gun hidden under his leg.
When Deputy Sheriff Owen tried to arrest the man, “that’s when the man pulled out his gun,” his wife recalled.
One officer was shot in the vest before Owen grabbed his own gun and started shooting back.
‘You see him falter. He said, ‘I’ve been shot.’ He started to lean over but then fell out and died.”
The suspect was also killed in the attack.
