Errant shot locks down school

TRAPPER CREEK — George Faerber knew what happened when he heard the gunshot Wednesday morning. The Petersville Road resident turned the corner in his yard to see a man with a .22-caliber rifle heading into the woods near Trapper Creek Elementary School.

The man had shot a spruce hen from a tree less than 100 yards from a playground full of children on recess, Faerber said.

“That’s been an ongoing — for years — problem here, as with other places in the Valley,” said Faerber, who confronted the man and pointed out the no trespassing signs on his land.

Apparently the signs proclaiming the area around Trapper Creek Elementary a school zone also do not register for some, he said. A line of trees screen the school’s playground.

“I mean, this is close to where the kids are, maybe 100 yards,” Faerber said. “If he hit a kid he could have killed a kid.”

Faerber said the man told him he’d lived in Alaska more than five decades, had seen the “no trespassing sign” and was not concerned about what he’d done.

“Shooting a .22 in the woods in the general direction of a school is dangerous,” Faerber said, calling the situation “an accident waiting to happen.”

Children who live in the area know gunshots when they hear them, Trapper Creek Elementary School Principal John Brown said. Some concerned students went to their yard monitors Wednesday to report hearing the shot, one reporting, “We heard a gunshot, and it was close.”

Children were quickly moved to the other side of the school in an action Brown described as a “lock down.”

Brown then traveled from Talkeetna Elementary, where he is also principal, to Trapper Creek and began notifying parents by letter about the event.

The school has also asked for better and more signage in the area to warn of the school zone, Brown said, adding he has had a favorable response from the state Department of Transportation.

Faerber knows from experience signs are also targets, but hopes something can be done about a long-standing problem. He gave the license plate number of Wednesday’s hunter to the school, which passed the information along to Alaska State Troopers. Troopers are investigating.

For Faerber, Wednesday’s confrontation wasn’t the last. A day later another man shot a spruce hen from a tree on his property, and when confronted told the land owner he is an Alaska native and can hunt where he pleases. He left after Faerber threatened to press charges.

In yet another incident, shots near Faerber’s house awoke him at 8 a.m. last Sunday. By the time Faerber was dressed all he could hear was a vehicle roaring down the road.

“People come from town and they think they’re in the wilderness,” he said.

Contact John R. Moses at john.moses@-frontiersman.com or call 352-2270.