Troopers: Drowned man believed to be fugitive

BIG LAKE — Alaska State Troopers on Monday confirmed that what neighbors around Stephan Lake had suspected — the man who drowned there is believed to be the same man that ran from troopers after firing a gun at a traffic stop June 25.

Troopers identified the drowned as Phillip Kounduangta, 24, of Anchorage.

“Kounduangta was suspected to be the driver of the vehicle related to the eluding incident in Big Lake on 6/25/2013,” a trooper press release states.

During that chase last month, troopers tried ot pull Kounduangta over. He got out of his car and fired shots from a pistol. The trooper was not hit.

Troopers then called in a special team and conducted an extensive search of the area near where South Big Lake Road meets Burma Road.

They didn’t find the man that shot at them before they finally called off the search. But that evening troopers were sent to Stephan Lake to search for a man neighbors said they saw get into trouble while swimming and go under the water.

Neighbors say troopers searched an island in the lake. Troopers say they again came up short. A Mat-Su Borough Dive Rescue Team search the next day likewise failed to find the drowned man.

Jim Faiks who lives on the lake, found the body on July 3. It was later identified as Kounduantaga.

Court records list four cases for Kounduantaga. In one of them, a felony drug selling case from May that apparently included allegations he brought drugs into a prison or jail, resulted in a warrant being issued for his arrest on June 6.

Those drug charges resulted in prosecutors trying to revoke his probation on a 2007 felony assault charge in which he allegedly fired a gun from a vehicle.

The other two cases are a 2010 drug misconduct case in which he pleaded guilty and a providing false information to a police officer case that was dropped in 2008.

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