Troopers named in fatal Friday shooting

MAT-SU — Alaska State Troopers on Monday identified the troopers who shot and killed a man who’d earlier confronted a Wasilla woman and a former Mat-Su resident, shooting one of them twice.

The troopers who shot and killed Atom Ziniewicz, 34, on Friday near Mile 270, Parks Highway in Healy were identified as Sgt. Chad Goeden and Lucas Altepeter,

Both are stationed in Fairbanks and are members of the state’s Special Emergency Reaction Team — what other agencies might call a SWAT team. Goeden is a 16-year veteran and Altepeter a 6-year veteran.

The SERT team was called out after Ziniwicz confronted Kimberly Scharber, 21, of Wasilla, and Brenton A. Green, 21, of Anchorage, at a cabin along the highway.

Ziniewicz, “confronted both victims and shot Green twice,” according to a trooper press statement.

Green and Scharber fled the area and called troopers at around 6:45 a.m. Green got medical attention.

Troopers at first didn’t know where Ziniewicz was. They called in the SERT team, set up roadblocks and put notices out to the public not to stop in that area of the highway.

Troopers set up a perimeter and searched for him using a police dog.

“As State Troopers searched the area, Ziniewicz appeared about 30 yards from the State Troopers and produced a handgun, resulting in the Troopers using deadly force,” according to a press release.

Ziniewicz was a resident of Falls Church, Virginia. Online news accounts seem to indicate he was a military veteran and a small business owner. He had a fitness center in Virginia.

The Alaska Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting, as it does every time a trooper shoots a suspect. As is also standard procedure, the results of that investigation, “which will be turned over to the Department of Law's Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals to evaluate whether the use of deadly force by the Troopers was legally justifiable,” according to troopers.