Chief: ‘It was pure'

Taxidermist IDs cop who shot him

October 30, 2005

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - Shawn McCrary and the Palmer police officers agree on a few things.

McCrary, 42, was kneeling in a house on South Gulkana Street in Palmer when Sgt. Lance Ketterling fired his handgun three times Sept. 21, hitting McCrary twice in the abdominal area. Palmer Police Chief George Boatright and officers James Gipson and Philip Krauss were in the house at the time. Before the shooting, Boatright and McCrary spoke to each other through the home's closed door. After the shooting, police shocked McCrary with a Taser device.

There, the agreement ends.

McCrary, a local taxidermist, was the first to talk about the incident during a phone interview last week from Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility, where he is in custody on charges stemming from the standoff between him and the police.

&#8220I was on my knees, on my butt,” McCrary said. &#8220I didn't have a gun. One of the cops went to Taser me and I jumped as the Taser shot right by me. I jumped instinctively and I was shot. Next thing I knew, they Tasered me.”

Boatright said McCrary did have a handgun - a 1911 Colt .45-caliber semiautomatic - in his right hand, tucked under his left arm.

&#8220The shooting was pure,” Boatright said. &#8220It was clean. It was golden. I was probably within 6 feet of him.”

Ketterling said that when he fired his weapon, McCrary was armed and made a movement with his handgun that threatened him and the rest of the officers at the scene. He said the shooting was the first time he had to fire his weapon in the line of duty.

Ketterling deferred to Boatright questions about other details of the shooting, such as what movement prompted Ketterling to fire his weapon.

In an agreement to get McCrary to disarm, Boatright said, he had holstered his own weapon. McCrary was supposed to put down his handgun, too. Instead, he made a sudden movement to pull his Colt out from under his armpit.

&#8220I'm fast,” Boatright said. &#8220But I'm not that fast.”

If Ketterling hadn't fired, the chief said, McCrary could have easily gotten off a shot.

Boatright also said he remembered the Taser after the shooting. He recalled the barbs going by his shoulder, but doesn't have a clear memory of the barbs hitting McCrary. In a tense situation like that, memories distort, he said.

&#8220Parts go by so quickly it's unreal,” Boatright said. &#8220Others go like slow motion.”

McCrary said that after he was shot and Tasered, with two bullets in the gut, he looked up at Boatright.

&#8220I said, ‘Chief, why'd your guy shoot me?'” he said.

According to court records, McCrary shouldn't have been in the house. On Sept. 16, he was served a protective order to stay away from his wife, although he could conduct business in the house while she was at work.

On Sept. 20, after a complaint that he violated that order, the court changed the protective order to say that McCrary had to stay out of the house unless he was accompanied by a peace officer for the purpose of removing his personal and work-related belongings.

McCrary had barricaded himself in the house, Boatright said, and they were there to resolve the issue. Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Bob Cox accompanied the Palmer police officers because McCrary had violated the order outside Palmer's jurisdiction, by going to a home in the Butte where his wife was staying.

Although the Anchorage Police Department is investigating the shooting, Chief Boatright will remain in charge of releasing information about the incident to the media and the public.

&#8220I don't have a problem with that,” said Tom Healy, Palmer city manager. &#8220I have confidence in the chief and the department.”

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.