Troopers release name of officer who shot Wasilla woman

WASILLA — The Alaska State Trooper who shot and killed a woman Sunday in Houston was a day shy of his one-year anniversary with the department at the time of the killing.

In a dispatch issued Thursday morning, troopers said the officer who shot and killed 38-year-old Patricia Krueger was Nick Murphy, a B Detachment patrol officer who began working as a trooper on Feb. 22, 2015.

According to troopers’ original account of the shooting, Kruger entered a residence on Hawk Lane on Sunday, Feb. 21 and took a gun from the homeowner, who fled the scene. Troopers arrived and tried to contact Kruger by cell phone, but could not. At some point Kruger pointed the gun at a trooper, troopers said, which caused Murphy to take deadly action.

The Alaska Bureau of Investigation is handing the investigation.