Man indicted for car chase, shooting

PALMER — A Wasilla man was indicted last week after he chased his ex-girlfriend and her husband down Knik-Goose Bay Road, while firing at their vehicle from his pickup, authorities said.

Arthur D. Bean, 33, of the Knik-Fairview was indicted Wednesday for first-degree weapons misconduct for firing from a moving vehicle and third-degree assault for threatening them with a deadly instrument. A grand jury tossed out a second charge of third-degree assault, according to an indictment filed July 17 in Palmer Superior Court. No one was injured in the incident.

The woman told police she had gone to the store for a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread with her husband about midnight, June 29, when they spotted Bean, who swore at her under his breath, according to an affidavit authored by Alaska State Trooper Daron Cooper.

The woman told Cooper she ignored him.

“He ran back out to his car and loaded his gun, I watched him,” she told police. “He leaned in the car and he loaded his gun.”

The woman and her husband left the Chevron station and headed south on Knik-Goose Bay and Bean followed them, they told troopers. Bean caught up with the couple near the intersection of KGB and Carmel, fired a few times in the air, then pointed the gun at their car and opened fire.

“All of a sudden, he came up on my bumper and he began to pass us on the left,” she told troopers. “I (saw) him wave a gun out of the window. He then tips the gun upside-down and with the gun pointed back at us, began to fire.”

Bean fired at least eight times, the woman told troopers, before the couple slowed down, and Bean sped away.

When they got to the intersection of Alix Drive, near Bean’s residence, he pointed his gun at them a second time, the husband told Cooper.

When troopers searched the area where the shooting took place, they collected eight .40-caliber shell casings from the roadway, after the woman and her husband both said theirs and Bean’s were the only vehicles on the road at the time, according to the affidavit. They then went to Bean’s residence to talk to him about the incident. Bean denied knowing the woman, but admitted he was at the Chevron, according to Cooper.

“Bean denied owning any weapons and stated that he did not fire any weapons from his vehicle,” Cooper wrote. “Bean stated that he wouldn’t do that because he has court in the morning on another (weapons misconduct) case and doesn’t want his hunting rights taken away.”

Troopers say the victims’ statements, physical evidence and Bean’s admission that he was at the Chevron constituted probable cause, but Bean refused to leave his home that night. Troopers instead waited to arrest him until the following morning, when he was due in court for a hearing on earlier weapons misconduct charges.

Authorities arrested Bean in April 2014 on two counts of third-degree weapons misconduct, one for possessing a weapon with an altered serial number, and another for having a prohibited weapon, court documents show. Alaska State Troopers arrested him a second time in August 2014 on a $1,000 bench warrant. He was set to plead guilty the morning after the alleged shooting, and was out on $2,500 bail at the time. The change-of-plea hearing has been rescheduled for July 31, according to court documents. He also faces a July 27 arraignment on the latest charges.

Bean posted another $2,500 on his latest charge at a July 1 bail hearing, and was no longer in custody, according to courts and corrections documents.

The relationship between the ex-girlfriend and the husband wasn’t immediately clear. She told troopers she had met Bean while her husband and she had split up. The husband referred to Bean’s ex-girlfriend as “his ex-girlfriend, my wife.” However, court documents show the couple jointly petitioned the Palmer Superior Court for a divorce five days prior to the shooting.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.