Palmer trooper ID’d in suspect shooting

EKLUTNA — Alaska State Troopers on Monday identified the trooper who shot and killed an Anchorage man following a car chase from Wasilla to Eklutna early Friday morning.

The trooper who fired was Sgt. Paul Anthony “Tony” Wegrzyn, a nine-year veteran assigned to the Palmer post.

The man who died was identified last week shortly after the shooting as Justin Lloyd Abrahamson, 29, of Anchorage. Court records show he had a history of driving without a license and running from police.

In Friday’s incident, troopers tried to pull Abrahamson over at Lucille Street and Parks Highway after not signaling a turn. At Trunk Road, troopers popped one of his tires with spike strips.

At Mile 25, Glenn Highway near the Thunderbird Falls Exit, the 1994 Saturn he was driving caught fire in the southbound lanes. Abrahamson got out and started running toward the northbound lanes.

“Attempts to subdue the individual, including use of a Taser, were unsuccessful. At approximately (4:20 a.m.), Abrahamson stopped and advanced on three troopers with a raised bat, a trooper fired his duty weapon striking Abrahamson,” troopers report.

Wegrzyn was the only one of the three troopers at the scene at the time who fired. Troopers investigate every such “officer involved shooting” the same way they would a homicide, to determine if the use of deadly force was justified, AST reports. Attorneys with the state Department of Law’s Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals, then makes another review. In five years of officer-involved shootings, OSPA has not once made the decision to prosecute an officer.

This is the first officer-involved shooting involving Valley officers in those five years during which a suspect was not armed with a gun. The most recent officer-involved shooting prior to this one was July 4 when Albert Maifea, 35, was shot in the buttocks as he brandished a gun running from troopers following a police chase. Maifea was re-arrested last week for yet another police chase.

Prior to Maifea, Russell Tanner was shot in the arm during a bizarre drug-fueled incident in February. Prior to Tanner, Adrian T. Spindler was shot and killed at the culmination of a standoff near Mile 4, Palmer-Wasilla Highway in July 2011.

Wegrzyn was not involved in any of those shootings.

Friday’s shooting of Abrahamson snarled traffic for miles, delaying hundreds of commuters. It effectively closed the highway during rush hour and impacted both sides of the highway — the shooting investigation was taking place in the northbound lanes while the burned up Saturn blocked the southbound. The highway finally opened in the early afternoon.

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