Chickaloon man arrested for threatening rafters with knife

WASILLA — A Chickaloon man is facing almost 20 counts ranging from assault to reckless endangerment after Alaska State Troopers say he threatened a river rafting group with a knife Monday. Many in the rafting group were children.

Bruce Harrison, 56, was arrested on 12 counts of assault along with six counts of reckless endangerment. He was arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Palmer District Court.

At one point during the altercation, Harrison pushed a raft holding children into the current without their guide aboard, according to troopers.

Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said Wednesday no injuries were reported in the incident, which was called in around 1:15 p.m. Monday by a Nova River Runners guide.

An office manager with Nova declined to comment on the incident Wednesday. At least four guides were at the scene, but the number of rafters involved was not provided. According to the trooper report, the four-raft group was making its way down the Chickaloon River and was approaching a bend near Chickaloon Branch Road when one of the rafts overturned after hitting an object in the water, dumping a group of mostly juveniles into the river. Peters said the juveniles involved were all in their mid-teens.

As the guides worked to get the riders out of the water and the rafts secured along the east side of the river, troopers say Harrison confronted the group “yelling and swearing about the rafters trespassing.” Peters said Harrison was carrying “some type of folding box cutter” and approached people in two of the rafts that had pulled to the shore, threatening to cut the boats.

Those boats pulled away into deeper water to avoid Harrison, troopers wrote in the report. He then approached and pointed the box cutter at a guide who was out of his raft to help the teens in the water. The guide tried to explain the situation to Harrison, according to the report, but “Harrison continued threatening the rafters.”

Harrison then moved to a third raft that was tied to a tree, with five juveniles on board, and untied it, according to the report.

“The juveniles, some crying, were pleading with Harrison to not untie the raft, stating they did not have a guide on board and they could not control the raft in the fast water. Harrison kicked the raft out into the fast water,” troopers wrote.

A guide jumped into the river and swam to the raft to gain control of it, troopers wrote. The Chickaloon River is classified as mainly a Class III waterway, with some Class IV stretches. The company offers an overnight trip on the river, but it was unclear what the group’s itinerary was Monday.

Harrison was charged with four counts of felony third-degree assault, eight counts of fourth-degree misdemeanor assault and six counts of misdemeanor reckless endangerment.