Gunfire in Fairbanks: Trooper injured, suspect dead

By
Suzanne Downing
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17
448

As Alaska State Troopers in north Fairbanks were attempting to serve a felony arrest warrant at 4 am on Saturday, one person — the suspect — was shot to death and a Trooper was injured by gunfire, Troopers announced today.

The details of the shooting were not released but the Trooper involved in the shooting was admitted to the hospital and later released, Must Read Alaska has learned. He is expected to make a full recovery.

A media availability is scheduled for this afternoon in Fairbanks. Names of troopers involved in shootings are released after three days.

This story will be updated; check back later.

 

17 COMMENTS

  1. Anchorage has nothing over Fairbanks. Both cities are out of control. Drugs, alcoholism. Opioid addictions. Women and men. Assault on law enforcement. Easy sentences on criminals. Lock them up for longer periods. Idiots in the legislature have gone nuts with their soft on crime bill’s. Where’s the sanity?

  2. It is interesting that the media is reporting this as a trooper “injured” when it appears that the trooper was “shot” during a 4 am “kick in the door” call?
    It will be interesting to learn what the deceased person was wanted for?
    As police in America move to a more military “swat like” paradigm for searving warrants and handling criminals, departments should have discussions as to the dangers involved with these 4 am methods…
    Maybe serving warrants in the daylight hours might be safer for all parties involved and end with less shots fired and dead suspects?

    • Not that I’m up at 4AM, but in Fairbanks right now, 4AM is broad daylight. There’s no “good time of day” to serve warrants on felons but at least at 4AM, most people are off the street and not going to get between the officer and the suspect.

        • No knock warrants are search warrants. This was an arrest warrant. There is no such thing as a no knock arrest warrant. They had to knock.

        • Because of the link you posted, I cannot reply to your latest comment below it. You changed your argument. First it was that they shouldn’t be using no knock warrants, which was dispelled, then you changed it to “they shouldn’t be kicking in the door in paramilitary fashion, or be militarized or using SWAT tactics.” What evidence is there that a) they kicked in the door? b) they had any military or SWAT gear? You are assuming many things with no basis in fact other than they arrived at 0500 (not 0400 as previously reported) which is broad daylight in Fairbanks at this time of year.
          For all we know he met them at the door and started shooting. Given his clear propensity to shoot at a uniformed police officer, would you rather they tried to contact him at 9:00 in the morning with kids in the street?

          • Chelly,
            At this time more information is coming out.
            “The troopers were trying to serve a search warrant and a $100,000 arrest warrant on charges of forgery and theft, Wilson said. “As troopers attempted to take Mr. Wilson into custody, he pulled a weapon and shot at and hit a trooper attempting to use less than lethal means of force on Mr. Wilson,” he said at a news conference.”
            So it was both a “search and arrest warrant” in this case, not just and arrest warrant as you claimed.
            Many people are commenting that Mr. Wilson was a long time Fairbanks resident and slope worker.
            Maybe there is a different way of “making contact” with a suspect that does not startle them from sleep and does not allow LE to break down doors when other family members may be traumatized and involved in the situation.
            That is my point.
            Sad to all parties involved and really dampens the Alaska spirit.

  3. “He [the Trooper] is expected to make a full recovery”

    God bless our Alaska State Troopers.

    You never really “fully recover” from things like this.

    They leave lasting scars that you carry with you throughout your life, both physical and emotional.

    An assault from a “life is cheap” Fairbanks felon not exactly the type of scar anyone of us would like to have, let alone, remember.

  4. I’m literally tired of all the glamorizing cops shooting people. Why did they “serve a warrant at 4a.m?) That man went to bed with no thoughts on him being dead by 430 a.m. all of the police forces in America need to focus on protecting instead of shooting someone at the drop of a dime. Sure he had warrants but did he DESERVE to die?? I think not. Over the past 5 years a lot of people have died at the hands of law enforcement. This is sad epidemic.

    • Hello? Anybody home? Most of these criminal characters shoot first. The cop has to reduce or eliminate the threat and try and save his own life. The 4:00 am warrant service is usually on a known drug dealer or criminal. The cops have a better chance of saving lives at 4:00am rather than in the middle of the work day. Being a cop is an extremely dangerous job. And there is no glamor for the cops to shoot people. Where did you get this concept? One day, your life may be saved by a cop.

      • Actually, arresting someone at 4 am after awakening them is often the worst option for the safety of all involved. Particularly given the chance of an address error and breaking in on an innocent person with no reason to expect that real police would be invading their home in the wee hours of the morning.

        People have been properly acquitted of shooting police officers in reasonable self-defense in such cases, though too often the innocent home owner (or their family pet) ends up dead and all the powers that be offer (due to qualified immunity) is a “Sorry, our bad.” They usually don’t even fix the broken door.

        This guy was wanted for non-violent paper felonies. We will see what the circumstances were, but in most cases catching someone in public, like walking to their car at work, reduces the chances of error and avoids assaulting a position where (violent criminals) actually keep all their guns.

        I have many friends in law enforcement, but the idea that “the most important thing is they go home at the end of their shift” is a cancerous perversion of the purpose of law enforcement in a free society.

  5. Hey Akgirl4life….I didn’t read ANY such indication in this article, or by those who responded before me that there was any certain words used “glamorizing cops shooting people”, and IF YOU WERE HONEST, and a LODGICAL THINKER [you] “would have noticed this also!! You have NO IDEA if this person who was being served a FELONY ARREST WARRANT wasn’t already a CONVICTED FELON, and apparently he had DONE SOMETHING to initiate this FELONY ARREST WARRANT that the perp most likely knew he had committed, otherwise WHY would he just come out shooting? If someone broke my door down for some unknown reason yelling “STATE TROOPERS, YOUR UNDER ARREST” knowing that this must be a MISTAKE, I would NOT initiate a GUN BATTLE…PERIOD!! A “No Knock Felony Arrest Warrant” is a lawful tactic, the AST have ALL THE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE of the perp the warrant is for that the general public knows NOTHING about, so your all poo-pooed over the AST shooting to defend themselves over a person who was looking at GOING TO JAIL for an OBVIOUS FELONY! And without any speculation on my part, the perp most likely KNEW HE WAS IN DEEP DOO-DOO for some CRIME HE HAD ALREADY COMMITTED, and apparently this perp had NO PROBLEM KILLING AN AST w/a firearm, which BTW is called ATTEMPTED MURDER!!! Perhaps you, AKGIRL, should be more UNDERSTANDING and APPRECIATE that the perp wasn’t targeting you for some FELONY ASSULT that you would have never seen coming, which is how CRIMINALS who have NO RESPECT FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT, or the general public conduct themselves! You pull a gun on any law enforcement representative, and that’s a death sentence! Furthermore, daytime, nighttime, or anytime law enforcement initiates a FELONY ARREST WARRANT, it doesn’t matter because it is lawful for them to do so, the AST(s) all want to go home to their families at the end of the day vertical! There has been far TOO MANY AST “murdered” by criminals in Alaska, and they ALL have the “Right and Responsibility” to preserve their lives from the criminal element that is lurking all around us!

  6. “Knock and announce” on an arrest warrant. That is the requirement under criminal procedure rules. Police take no joy in shooting someone. They want to go home to their family too. Most of these characters are well know to police. Most have a propensity to be violent if confronted by police. There were a dozen officers involved in this event. My sympathies to the family.

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