The son of a retired sheriff’s deputy in Texas says killing his “alcoholic” father was the only way to protect his mother and himself from a nightmarish cycle of domestic violence.
Michael Merritt, 22, coolly explained to a reporter on Wednesday why he gunned down his 53-year-old father, Brian Cannon Merritt, who retired from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office last year after three decades of service.
“It was the only way to guarantee my mom and I’s safety,” Merritt told KTRK. “I had no way of knowing what he was capable of or what he was armed with. I knew that given the opportunity and given the right amount of whatever, he could’ve done some very terrible things to us — and I know he was about to do to my mom.”
Merritt said both he and his mother had endured years of physical and verbal abuse from his father, whom he shot and killed early Wednesday at the family’s home in Spring.
“My dad was an alcoholic,” Merritt told the station. “The breaking point was when I left my room to find my mom covering her face and sobbing because my dad had punched her in the face. The breaking point was when he was going to do the same thing to me, if not worse.”
Merritt also accused his father of taking steps to hide any evidence of the alleged abuse.
“He made sure not to leave any bruises so police wouldn’t believe us,” he said. “He thought we were defenseless.”
Sheriff officials said no arrests had been made as of Wednesday. The case will be presented to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office once an investigation is completed, department officials announced.
“Merrrit’s 22-year-old told Sheriff’s Office homicide investigators that his father was physically assaulting his mother, and that he shot his father to protect his mother,” the announcement read.
Merritt worked for the department from December 1989 until March 2017.
A former neighbor of the Merritts, meanwhile, told the Houston Chronicle that she called police at least twice in August to report the former deputy. Kelly Bryant, who has since moved to Colorado, said the former deputy was “banging” on their door while she and her husband were out of town, frightening her daughter who was home alone at the time.
Merritt also cursed out Bryant’s family weeks later at a garage sale and allegedly slashed tires on their car, she said.
“At the end of the day, we were terrified of him,” Bryant told the newspaper. “The police couldn’t stop him. A complete failure.”
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