Captain Raymond Bussell Merritt, 46, was killed in the line of duty in June 1991 in Tifton, Georgia. A 19-year veteran of the Tift County Sheriff’s Office and a former Tifton Police Department officer, Merritt was also a United States Army veteran. He and other officers were responding to a domestic disturbance on Bill Bowen Road where a man had assaulted his wife and daughter and then barricaded himself in a separate building.

As officers tried to communicate and cautiously approached the building’s porch, the man inside fired a .38 caliber handgun, striking Captain Merritt. Fellow officers returned fire and wounded the suspect, but Merritt died at the scene. The suspect survived, was taken into custody, later pleaded guilty to murder with the addition of being mentally ill, and received a life sentence. He remained incarcerated until his death in 2013.

Anyone who knew Captain Merritt, his family, or the circumstances of that response is asked to share information or memories that might add to the record.