Palmer man arrested for firing at friend

PALMER — A suicidal man, reportedly not being careful with a pistol, drew response from a specialized team of Alaska State Troopers with assistance from a robot Saturday.

The team, which troopers call the Special Emergency Response Team but other departments would refer to as a SWAT team, was called in at 5:54 a.m., after dispatchers at the Palmer Police Department received a 911 call.

In an affidavit filed Saturday, Trooper Joseph Hess described the call as “a 911 open line with a male and female subject arguing, and the male possibly having a gun to his head.”

Palmer police went to the home where the phone was registered and eventually called for help from the troopers.

“We received a report that somebody was potentially suicidal with a gun. When they went out to respond to it they couldn’t make contact,” said trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters. “SERT showed up to attempt to make contact with the man.”

According to Hess’ affidavit, at 9:13 a.m., a woman came out and told the story of the evening. At 1 a.m., she and her friend, Arthur Baux, 40, had left the 4 Corners Lounge and went home separately. Later, she drove to Baux’s house after getting suicidal text messages from him.

“She went to the master bedroom of the residence and attempted to kick in the attached bathroom door that was closed and locked, believing that Baux was inside,” Hess wrote. “While attempting to access the bathroom, a gunshot from inside the bathroom was fired and exited the bathroom wall directly to the left of the bathroom door and impacted the bedroom ceiling.”

The woman made it into the bathroom and pleaded with Baux not to kill himself. Eventually they went out and got some smokes.

The woman was “driving erratically, attempting to be contacted by police,” Hess wrote.

On the drive, Baux pointed a pistol at her several times and she was afraid it would go off. Eventually, they returned to the home on Crimson View Drive and police and troopers showed up.

Even after the woman left the home, troopers report they couldn’t make contact with Baux.

“They had to send in a robot to see what was going on,” Peters said. “We have one robot. It’s on wheels, it’s got a little arm.”

The robot quickly informed the waiting SERT team what was going on.

“It turns out that (Baux) apparently had fallen asleep,” Peters said.

Troopers were able to rouse him and arrested him on charges of domestic violence assault, domestic violence weapons misconduct and domestic violence.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.