Friend stunned, saddened by attacks

Megan Fry knows Christopher Erin Rogers Jr. as a quiet, meek man and was shocked to learn of his murderous rampage that left two people dead and three in critical condition at area hospitals.

Rogers, 28, was arrested Monday morning in Anchorage after a brief chase following a carjacking. After surrendering to police Rogers reportedly confessed to a 26-hour spree of violence that began early Sunday morning in his father’s Palmer home. Police say he admitted to killing his father, Christopher Erin Rogers Sr., 51, with a machete and attempting to kill his father’s girlfriend, Elann Moran, 55. He then fled to Anchorage, where he shot three more people, killing one.

“I can’t believe it. I just cannot even believe it,” said Megan Fry, a friend of Rogers Jr. for about three years. “He was really a great friend.”

Fry met Rogers Jr. when he dated a close family member and while shocked and horrified at his alleged crimes, in hindsight she believes he just snapped.

“His dad, we’ve known him for years and years and years,” she said. “That’s very believable that he snapped. I very much believe that. I thought he was really quiet and really didn’t stand up for himself that much.”

Rogers Jr. had some other brushes with the law and was known to used drugs, Fry said. He also was treated badly by his father and Moran.

Moran, who survived the attack, told Alaska State Troopers she was awakened by Rogers Jr. striking her with a machete. He was standing over her saying something like, “You make me do this,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Palmer District Court.

Moran also said she believed Rogers Jr. may have taken a quantity of her prescription medication, which Fry also believes.

“He was just not treated well by anybody,” she said. “He was always around us. I know his dad and his dad’s girlfriend were not nice to him. I guess he didn’t work and they treated him like he was a loser.”

Fry also said it would make sense if Rogers Jr. was under the influence of drugs while allegedly committing his crimes.

“He drank a lot, and taking those pain medications [at the same time] can make your mind funny,” Fry said, adding she does not want to make excuses for his terrible acts. “I’m not justifying what he did; there really is no excuse for that.”

In addition to his father and Moran, Rogers Jr. confessed to police he shot and killed Jason Wenger, 27, early Sunday in Anchorage during an aborted carjacking at Lois Street and Spenard in Anchorage. Wenger was found hours later, the vehicle idling in his driveway with its radio on. Later Sunday, 33-year-old jogger Elizabeth Rumsey was shot in the back when a man who had asked her for the time fired several rounds at her. Early Monday, a 911 call alerted police to the shooting and car jacking of 43-year Tamas Deak as he left his Jeep idling in his driveway at 16th Avenue and K Streets.

After attacking his father and Moran, Rogers Jr. said he wasn’t worried about being apprehended; instead, he wanted to kill more people before being caught.

“I can’t believe he said he wanted to take a few more out along the way,” Fry said. “There had to be something else in his head, because that was not the man that I knew.”

More Valley ties

A little more than 24 hours before being shot in the back by Rogers Jr. while jogging in Anchorage, Rumsey was in Talkeetna competing in — and winning — the annual Wilderness Woman Contest.

The organizer of the Wilderness Woman Contest and Bachelor's Auction was horrified to read reports that his most recent contest winner is a victim of violence.

Louden Wilson of the Talkeetna Bachelor's Society said his organization primarily exists to help women in crisis. The group auctions off its single male participants at a fundraiser, which this year raised nearly $10,000 for charitable grants, mostly put a fund to help women in crisis.

"I read the papers and had that 'oh my God' moment,” Wilson said.

Rumsey aced the Wilderness Women Contest with a strong showing through all the tests of skill and strength, including a rigorous run hauling water buckets and other tasks that won her airline miles and a fur hat.

She was jogging on an urban trail when she encountered Rogers Jr., who shot her in the back after asking her for the time of day.

Wilson said the situation reminds him of how interconnected things are in Alaska.

One of the Bachelor Society members has mutual friends with Rumsey. Wilson said the group will discuss the development when it meets again Dec. 12, but does not know if Rumsey needs financial assistance or how much the society could do.

"She's a woman in crisis," Wilson said about the group’s mission to help women in crisis.

Rogers Jr. faces two charges of first-degree murder and three charges of attempted first-degree murder, and will be arraigned today at 4 p.m. in Anchorage.