ANCHORAGE — Alaska State Troopers arrested a man Monday after he barricaded himself inside a home for hours in a tiny northwest Alaska village where one person was found dead outside the residence.
The man was apprehended about 2:30 p.m. in Selawik, Alaska. Troopers flew to the village earlier in the day after receiving a report shortly after 4:30 a.m. that a man was shooting a firearm in the village.
No other details were immediately released. Troopers said they were working to positively identify the person who died, as well as the man arrested.
Tom McCoy, who lives about 50 yards away from the home, said he was watching TV early Monday morning when his son announced there was a shooting going on. He got out his binoculars and could see someone laying outside, with three men on a four-wheeler trying to save him at the same time they were also being shot at, McCoy said.
The men finally fled with the body over a bridge to some apartments.
McCoy provided an identification for the man in the house, but troopers declined to confirm the identity Monday afternoon.
Before the man was taken into custody, troopers urged people to stay away from the area. People took that advice seriously.
“It’s dead quiet out there,” McCoy said shortly before he saw troopers walking the man out of the house in handcuffs.
Selawik is an Inupiat Eskimo community of about 875 people. It is 475 miles northwest of Anchorage, near the northwestern coast.
