Authorities on Saturday identified several law enforcement officers involved in the shooting of a man in Sauk Centre on Thursday after he allegedly shot an officer in the arm with a target arrow.
The suspect, Ramey James Olson, 31, of Alexandria, was released from the hospital Saturday and booked into the Stearns County jail on probable cause felony assault.
The Department of Public Safety said two officers discharged their firearms in the incident: trooper Anthony Butler, a nine-year veteran of the State Patrol, and officer Patrick Nechanicky, a 12-year veteran of the Melrose Police Department. In addition, Sgt. Joseph Jensen, a 12-year veteran of the Sauk Centre Police Department, discharged his Taser. The agency did not describe Olson's wounds.
Butler and Nechanicky were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
The BCA said that officers on the scene, at 718 10th St., were not wearing body cameras and squad cameras did not capture any videos of the shooting incident. The BCA will turn its findings over to the Stearns County Attorney's Office for review.
The St. Cloud Police Department is investigating the assault of Stearns County deputy Paul Orvis, a 17-year veteran of the Stearns County Sheriff's Office, who was shot in the forearm with an arrow.
Authorities said Olson was driving a stolen black pickup when he pulled into a John Deere lot about 10 a.m. and ran into a building. He drove the truck through multiple backyards, smashed into parked vehicles and eventually crashed through a garage on 10th Street, then ran into a home through an unlocked door, according to the Sheriff's Office.
The neighborhood was evacuated and Sauk Centre schools were put on lockdown. Olson was eventually cornered in a home and arrested after a two-hour standoff.
Dan Browning • 612-673-4493
