Police charge men for reckless gunfire

WASILLA — A soldier who served with the U.S. Army in Iraq was jailed for shooting up his apartment, though he told police he believed at the time he was firing at an intruder.

Lee Hodsdon, 24, actually first came to the attention of police Dec. 17 after a neighbor in the 1300 block of Lucille Street called 911 around 1:30 a.m. to report his pleading shouts.

“As I approached the apartment I could hear a man yelling for help through an open upstairs window in Apartment 4. The male stated he believed somebody was in the house,” Officer Brandon Gray with the Wasilla Police Department says in the official police account of the case filed in court.

Gray said he went inside the apartment and saw a .45-caliber pistol on a chair in the living room. Gray and an Alaska State Trooper cleared the house to make sure no one was inside.

“When I entered Hodsdon’s room on the second floor I could smell gunpowder. I observed multiple bullet holes in his door,” Gray writes. “It looked as though three bullets were fired from a .45-caliber pistol and five bullets from a 5.56-millimeter rifle,” Gray says.

The bullets went through the door and into an adjacent bedroom. One appeared to have left the house through an exterior wall. There was a Ruger rifle in the hallway and a Kimber pistol in the bedroom matching the calibers of the bullet holes.

“Hodsdon stated he thought the heard somebody come into his apartment. Hodsdon said he took a defensive position in his room with his Kimber. Hodsdon said he saw his bedroom door start to slide open and he commanded the person to stop. Hodsdon said when his door continued to slide open he started firing his Kimber. Hodsdon said since it was dark, he transitioned to his Ruger, which was equipped with an optical sight, so he could see better,” Gray wrote.

Hodsdon also told Gray he noticed his roommate’s door was open, but usually his roommate locks it before going to the slope. He said when the shooting was done he didn’t see anyone in the house but stayed inside and yelled for help.

He also told police he was taking medication for anxiety and panic attacks as well as Suboxone — a powerful painkiller. Gray said he found an empty syringe and a marijuana pipe in Hodsdon’s bedroom.

“There was not any sign of forced entry into the residence or into his roommate’s bedroom,” Gray wrote.

Gray arrested Hodsdon and on the way to jail in the patrol car, “Hodsdon stated he thought he was sure somebody was in his apartment but now he is not so sure.”

Gray wrote that he talked to a neighbor who said she heard loud bangs that would stop for 20-minute intervals that night. She said they sounded like a Dumpster slamming shut but could have been gunshots.

She said she hadn’t seen anybody suspicious all night and usually knows when people are around. She said she didn’t report the banging because she “did not want to be portrayed as the nosey neighbor.”

Court records show Hodsdon made his $1,000 bail and was released. The type of weapons misconduct he faces is a misdemeanor and relates to recklessly firing a gun.

Aside from some minor driving offenses and a guilty plea to an underage drinking charge in 2005, Hodsdon has a clean criminal history in Alaska.

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