Virtually three years in the past immediately, Arik Matson interrupted dinner at a Waseca restaurant and set off in the direction of a quickly altering life aboard a police cruiser.

There had been a name a couple of yard thug with a flashlight, and Arik, who was 31 on the time and wore the Waseca Police Division Badge 222, was going to test it out.

At about the identical time, Arık’s spouse, Megan, is placing her two daughters, then 7-year-old Audrina and 5-year-old Maklynn, to mattress at her residence in close by Freeborn, and she or he plans to return early.

None of them might have identified that their lives had been about to intersect with these of 37-year-old Tyler Robert Janovsky, a “meth-head” as a cop would later describe him.

Janovsky was the person within the yard on the 900 block of Third Avenue SE in Waseca, and when Arik arrived with the opposite two officers, Janovsky climbed onto the roof of a storage and began taking pictures.

A bullet hit Arik’s head, shattering the appropriate frontal lobe of his mind.

. . .

Arik was 9 years outdated when his uncle Paul Matson took him duck looking for the primary time.

Perhaps it was the scent of a moist swamp within the early morning. Or maybe the picture of teal with blue wings flapping its wings over the bait.

Or simply the chance to be together with his uncle.

No matter it was, duck looking turned Arik’s ardour ever since, a lot in order that years later, when he met Jeremy Henke in a category in Mankato, Minnesota, and the 2 turned associates, Arik needed to move on what he had discovered. from his uncle.

Henke mentioned, “We had been each finding out regulation enforcement. When Arik graduated, he was employed as a deputy for Freeborn County whereas I used to be a clerk at Lake Crystal for a 12 months. Then I turned an MP for Freeborn County as nicely.

“As a result of we had been new MPs, we frequently labored the night time shift collectively. Generally in October we’d get off work at 5 am and go duck looking. He knew so much about duck looking, together with the place to go. So it was nice.

“Our friendship continued when Arik moved to the Waseca Police Division and have become a conservation officer within the Pure Assets Division in 2015.”

. . .

Chris Tetrault is a DNR guard at Stillwater. He, too, is a former army veteran and, together with a small group of different regulation enforcement and army veterans, shaped a bunch referred to as about 5 years in the past. Hometown Hero Outdoors.

The thought was to assist individuals like themselves going by means of powerful instances – primarily first responders.

“Our aim was to get individuals on the entrance line who wanted assist due to one thing that occurred to them, to get them to do one thing they take pleasure in, to encourage them when assembly new individuals,” Tetrault mentioned. .

“Our bread is looking and fishing. However we took individuals on sizzling air balloon rides, ATV rides, canine sled rides – no matter they needed.

“We began small in Minnesota. However now we’re in 26 states and we have taken greater than 4,000 individuals out into the open air. Nationally, we have now 150 regulation enforcement officers and different volunteers. No one will get paid.”

. . .

Chad Davis can be a DNR bodyguard based mostly in Owatonna. After listening to that Arık had been shot, he referred to as Tetrault and requested him to rearrange a visit to Arık.

“He likes duck looking,” Davis informed Tetrault.

On the time, neither Davis nor Tetrault knew that Arik had lengthy dreamed of looking king eiders, an elusive and fantastically feathered sea duck that hunts in only some locations in North America.

St. Mary’s, a 43-square-mile reef within the Bering Sea, inhabited by solely about 500 individuals and sometimes featured on the TV present “Deadliest Catch.” Alaska off Paul Island. The mainland of Alaska is 770 air miles from the island Anchorage.

“There’s a video on the Web referred to as ‘Killing a King,'” Arık mentioned the opposite day. “I first discovered about king eider and king eider looking there.”

Fishing situations on the island are sometimes dire, with small boat rides on noisy seas surrounded by unpredictable currents and tides. Eiders are sometimes caught in the midst of the whirlpool from snowy, wind-swept bastions.

“You can be chilly, the wind will blow in your face, it is going to rain in your face,” says a information within the video. You haven’t any enterprise right here.”

Now he was nonetheless at a Twin Cities Hospital – three months in hospital earlier than being transferred to an Omaha rehab middle the place he stayed for seven months – when he was informed that his Hometown Hero Out of doors had awarded him an journey someplace in North America.

Now when he mentioned “I wish to go bear looking in Canada” at first, this confused everybody as a result of he had by no means hunted bears and confirmed no curiosity.

Then he modified his thoughts. “I wish to hunt king eiders off St. Paul Island in Alaska,” he mentioned.

. . .

On Friday, Arik went to St. Paul together with his uncle, Jeremy Henke. Arik’s recoveryand Chris Tetrault can be boarding a Delta flight to Anchorage. From there on Saturday, climate allowing, St. They may fly to Paul Island.

For Arik, his uncle and Henke, it will likely be looking collectively like within the outdated days.

In the meantime, Tetrault will assist Arik get round.

And he’ll need assistance.

Megan Matson mentioned, “Now he nonetheless loves being the husband to me and the daddy of our daughters. We’re very impressed with the progress he is made. He is had a number of setbacks, however he is pushing himself a lot tougher.

“Nonetheless totally different. Due to the traumatic mind damage, his character is totally totally different from earlier than. It was an enormous match for me that I nonetheless cannot fairly settle for.

“Bodily, he nonetheless struggles together with his left arm. However when he is given a shotgun and goes duck looking like he did final fall, his arm works as if the whole lot is linked.

“I am excited for this journey for him, to flee and be on the hunt together with his greatest pal, his uncle, and the brand new associates he is made. In the long run, he’ll pay for it. He’ll be exhausted.” for per week or two.

“However it will likely be value it.”

. . .

Janovsky was given 35 years for taking pictures Arik.

Arik, with the Waseca Police Division badge hanging from a sequence round his neck, and Megan by his facet, mentioned on the prison trial:

“From immediately on, I select to dwell life to the fullest, to belief God’s plan, and never take something calmly.”

Then he mentioned, “[I] If it had been tomorrow, I might reply that decision once more.”