Troopers still search for alleged shooter

BIG LAKE — Alaska State Troopers are still actively searching for a motorist who exited his vehicle and fired shots at troopers during an attempted traffic stop Tuesday morning.

Troopers attempted to stop a vehicle at 8:22 a.m. in the area of Big Lake Road when the man driving the vehicle fled on foot, an AST press statement says.

“After about a 10-minute pursuit, the vehicle stopped and a male exited the vehicle,” the statement says. “It is reported that the man fired shots (at a trooper). The trooper was not injured.”

Information on just how many shots were fired at the trooper isn’t being released while the investigation continues, AST spokeswoman Megan Peters said Wednesday afternoon.

The fired-upon trooper called for back-up and AST activated its Special Emergency Reaction Team, or SERT — a type of team other jurisdictions refer to as a SWAT team — Peters said. In addition to SERT, the search for the man included air and other support.

“We had a helicopter involved and at least one K-9 was involved,” she said.

She described the operation as similar to those in most search situations.

“They were searching outbuildings that might not be secured on people’s properties as well as going through the wooded areas,” Peters said. “There was for some time a trooper doing traffic control at the four-way stop, where if you keep going straight it’s Burma Road,” she said.

The SERT responders searched until about 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, then were called off.

“The suspect has not been located,” an AST press statement said. “The investigation is ongoing. AST advises people in the Big Lake community to remain cautions.”

What troopers refer to as a “possible description” on the AST Facebook page described the suspect as being about 5 feet, 7 inches tall, “possibly of Asian descent and has a short, tight haircut.”

Peters said that there wasn’t any one thing that made troopers decide to call off the search team.

“It gets to a point where if you’re doing something and you’re not getting the results that are desired you need to change gears and so it kind of turned to more of an investigative standpoint,” she said, drawing a distinction between the type of search that involves tromping through the woods and one that involves interviewing witnesses and working sources. “We couldn’t guarantee that he was truly still in the area and how long do you keep resources deployed in an area when you can’t guarantee that the person is still there.”

While the suspect is still at large, Peters declined to elaborate on what else AST is doing to track down the man.

In the mean time, troopers are urging Valley residents, and those in the Big Lake community, to be cautions and practice basic common sense safety in their homes and in public, Peters said.

“Keep your house locked. If you don’t know somebody, don’t let them in,” she said. “Don’t pick up hitchhikers. …. And talk to your kids about safety and why you locked your doors.”