An Anchor Point man has died of an unintentional gunshot wound. Kenneth Defrancesco, 80, appeared to have been killed while getting out of his vehicle and “a firearm he was carrying came out of the holster and fired a round, fatally wounding him,” Alaska State Troopers reported in a press release on Sunday.
Next of kin has been notified.
According to the release, a friend found Defrancesco dead at his Shorebird Lane home in Anchor Point when the friend went to check on him after Defrancesco failed to answer text messages and phone calls. Troopers responded about 3:50 p.m. Aug. 28, and determined Defrancesco had died sometime during the previous 24 hours. Troopers said that there were no signs of foul play.
In an email, Alaska Department of Public Safety Information Officer Tim Despain wrote that the firearm that killed Defrancesco “was a revolver designed to look like a black powder pistol but (that) uses current ammunition. How the pistol discharged is yet to be determined and is being investigated.”
According to the press release, Defrancesco’s body was to be transported to the Alaska State Medical Examiner’s office for an autopsy.
Reach Michael Armstrong at marmstrong@homernews.com.
