Trooper fires at armed man outside his Wasilla home after false report

An Alaska State Trooper fired at a man outside a Wasilla home early Sunday, Aug. 30, after responding to a 911 call that troopers later determined was false. The man was not struck, and no one was injured.

Troopers received the call at 4 a.m. from an adult male who said he had been assaulted and had walked into the woods to escape, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety. Troopers found the caller in the backyard of a residence near Sprue Avenue and Lucille Street. That home was not the location of the reported assault.

Troopers knocked on the door to reach the occupants. An adult male came out "brandishing a handgun," the department said, and a trooper fired. Investigators determined the original caller had not been assaulted and was heavily intoxicated, the department said.

The Alaska Bureau of Investigation is investigating. The Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions will review the findings independently afterward. The trooper who fired is on seven days of administrative leave under department policy, and the department said the trooper's name will be released Sept. 2.

The account comes entirely from the department's dispatch posting, case AK26085666. It contains no statement from the man who was fired upon or from other occupants of the residence. It does not say the man pointed the handgun at anyone, how many shots were fired, or whether the man or the caller was arrested or charged.

The shooting is at least the third involving troopers this summer, according to trooper dispatches. A trooper fatally shot Thomas Aquino, 20, of Fairbanks, after a pursuit July 7, case AK26064658, and SWAT members shot and killed Philip Phillips, 58, of Wasilla, near Whittier on July 9, case AK26065954.