ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Law enforcement officers shot and killed a suspected intoxicated driver as he backed his pickup toward a Wasilla Police Department officer, Alaska State Troopers said Monday.
Gordon Samel, 52, died Sunday night on the Seward Meridian Parkway after both the Wasilla police officer and a state trooper fired handguns at the pickup, troopers said.
A passenger in the truck suffered an arm wound. He wasn’t charged with a crime and his name wasn’t released.
Authorities said names of the officers involved would be released Wednesday night.
Troopers said in a release that a dispatcher took a call at 8:37 p.m. that two intoxicated men were in a white pickup that had pulled into a parking lot at Palmer-Wasilla Highway and the Parks Highway. The caller provided a license number of the truck.
Seven minutes later, a trooper arrived and knocked on the window of the truck, but it drive off, circled several businesses and took off driving the wrong way in northbound lanes of the Parks Highway.
The truck crossed the median to reach southbound lanes and turned off the highway, troopers said.
At the Seward Meridian Parkway, the pickup turned around in the roadway and was circled by two trooper patrol cars and a Wasilla police patrol vehicle.
A trooper and the Wasilla police officer approached on foot, and the pickup driver put the truck in reverse and backed toward the police officer. Both officers fired.
No toxicology results were released, and trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said by email that she didn’t know how fast the truck moved toward the officer.
Troopers say an investigative report will be provided to the Department of Law to determine if deadly force was justified.
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