Troopers shoot, kill man in Wasilla neighborhood

(Updated 8 a.m. Saturday, June 4)

WASILLA — Gunfire shattered the calm of a quiet early-summer Thursday night in Wasilla, where authorities say Alaska State Troopers shot and killed a man after he threatened them with a knife.

In a Thursday night email, trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said troopers fired on the man after he tried to attack them.

“We encountered an adult, white male armed with a knife. When troopers attempted to talk to him, the male charged at troopers with the knife,” Peters wrote. “Two troopers fired their service weapons at the man, seriously injuring him.”

Peters said both troopers have been placed on administrative leave for 72 hours per department policy. Troopers said the man — identified Friday as 33-year-old Wasilla resident Joshua Smith — was taken by helicopter to Providence Hospital in Anchorage, where he later died.

Peters said the Alaska Bureau of Investigation is conducting the investigation into the incident.

At the scene, trooper Lt. Tom Dunn said troopers responded the scene to deal with a man armed with multiple knives. When asked to clarify why troopers gave two different accounts of the number of weapons the man had, Peters said Friday that she could not comment.

"The investigation has been taken over by ABI," she wrote. "ABI is not providing clarification or further details at this time."

Peters said a press conference will be held Monday to provide more details about the incident.

According to Mat-Su Borough property records, Joshua and Dara Smith own a home on Adam Circle, about half a block from where the shooting occurred. Neighborhood residents said the couple lived in the home with their daughter. Several cars were gathered at the home on Friday. A woman who met a Frontiersman reporter outside the home declined comment on behalf of the family.

In an online dispatch issued Friday morning, troopers also said a third trooper "attempted to utilize a Tazer" on the man. Peters said she could not comment further about the specifics of the Tazer use or give the name of the trooper who used the nonlethal device.

Multiple witnesses echoed troopers’ initial account of the shooting, which happened at around 8 p.m. in the Meadow Brook subdivision near Wasilla Creek. Troopers first responded to the neighborhood at around 7:22 p.m., according to an online dispatch.

Witnesses said the incident apparently began with a disturbance involving two people and a dog in the middle of the street. Several people said they first noticed something amiss when they saw a man and woman arguing in the area where Jean Drive, Adam Circle and Megan Way intersect.

Neighborhood resident Don Bolton was driving to a church meeting shortly after 7 p.m. when he spotted the man later identified as Smith, who Bolton did not recognize. Bolton said the man appeared to be “acting weird,” and gave Bolton an uncomfortable feeling.

“He jumped out at me, just his look,” Bolton said of the man, who he described as wearing brown pants and what looked like a cutoff t-shirt.

When Bolton returned from church, he found the streets lined with trooper cars in what turned out to be the aftermath of the biggest commotion longtime residents could ever remember.

“It’s a quiet and tight neighborhood,” Bolton said.

At some point shortly after Bolton noticed the situation, a lone state trooper arrived on the scene to talk to the couple.

Kaitlynn Shepard and Sydney Arbeit, both 15, said they heard a commotion outside through a second-story window at a home near the intersection. They said they looked out and saw a man with a pit bull and a woman standing in the middle of the road. The two people appeared to be arguing, and the man was acting strange and slurring his speech, the girls said. Then the first state trooper pulled up and started talking to the man, they said.

Christine Harris, who lives on Jean Drive near the intersection, said she watched the situation unfold from her front porch. She said she went outside to water her plants and saw a man in khaki pants and a white t-shirt talking with the trooper. The man had what appeared to be a pit bull, and the woman was watching from a nearby corner. It seemed like the trooper was attempting to negotiate with the man, who Harris said appeared extremely agitated.

“He was trying to de-escalate the guy,” she said.

At least two more troopers arrived at the intersection, and things quickly escalated from there, Harris said.

“They started talking and then the guy got a little bit more agitated and drew a knife,” she recalled.

The troopers warned Smith to drop it, Harris said.

“The cops told him twice to put down his weapon,” she said. “He did not and he started coming after the troopers. And then the shots fired.”

Shepard and Arbeit said Smith appeared to threaten himself before brandishing the knife in the direction of troopers.

“At first, he held it up to his neck,” Shepard recalled. “But then he turned it on them and started running at them.”

The girls saw troopers fire multiple shots at Smith.

“All of the sudden we just started freaking out,” Shepard said of witnessing the shooting.

The man struggled at first, then went down to the pavement, clinging to the dog. The girls said the unidentified woman he'd been arguing with came over and took the dog away.

“I love you!” the woman reportedly cried out to Smith.

Harris corroborated that account.

“After the shots fired all I could hear was ‘I love you, I love you,’ and her screaming,” she said.

After Smith was on the ground, Shepard and Arbeit said he repeatedly called for help, then yelled for officers to kill him until he was loaded into the back of the ambulance. Several minutes later, a helicopter landed in a nearby yard and flew the man to Anchorage.

After the shooting stopped, residents emerged from their houses to watch the dramatic scene. As the long twilight began to fade, investigators continued to canvass the area, talking to witnesses and gathering evidence.

As residents of the neighborhood off Hyer Road stood in small groups on front porches and well-manicured lawns Thursday night, many struggled to make sense of the violent evening.

“It’s a very good neighborhood,” Harris said. “Very watchful, very respectful.”

A Meadow Brook resident since the neighborhood of single-family residential homes opened 2004, Harris said she’s never seen anything like the events of Thursday night.

“Maybe on TV.”

Frontiersman reporter Caitlin Skvorc and sports editor Jeremiah Bartz contributed to this story. To contact the newsroom, email news@frontiersman.com or call (907) 352-2250.