The Kenai Grand Jury last month indicted a Ninilchik man for three counts of attempted murder stemming from an incident that happened at the Ninilchik American Legion parking lot in mid-December.
In the indictment filed Dec. 19, 2018, the grand jury alleged that Ramonne E. Kirksey, 38, pulled the trigger on a .22 pistol three times while the weapon was pointed at Samuel Mireles while Mireles was trying to help two women Kirksey had confronted. The pistol did not fire and Mireles and the women were not injured.
According to an affidavit by Alaska State Trooper Kevin Gill, Kirksey admitted pulling the trigger three times, but believed the safety was activated. The indictment charged Kirksey with a count of first-degree attempted murder for each pull of the trigger.
Kirksey also was charged with first-degree assault, third-degree assault, and third-degree misconduct involving weapons for being a felon in possession of a firearm (those are all felonies) and misdemeanor counts of second-degree stalking and two counts of fourth-degree assault.
According to Trooper Gill’s affidavit, at about 9:05 p.m. Dec. 13, a woman called 911 reporting that Kirksey had approached her car parked at the Ninilchik American Legion. The woman spoke with Gill, and while on the phone with Gill, said Kirksey left. Another woman in the car had called Mireles for help to escort them home, Gill wrote.
Kirksey then returned and confronted Mireles and left again. Troopers responded after Kirksey had left the second time.
When Mireles showed up, he told Gill that Kirksey was “spitting up a storm.” Mireles told Kirksey to leave, according to the affidavit. Kirksey went back to his car, reached inside and grabbed something, and then said “all right, do something.”
Mireles told troopers he went into his own car, and that when he tried to guide the women in the other car away, Kirksey blocked the cars with his own vehicle. Mireles told Kirksey to get away, and reported to Gill that Kirksey then came up to the driver’s side window, open about 3 inches, pointed a pistol at him and pulled it three times.
Mireles said he heard the gun click but not fire. Kirksey then drove away, hitting a snowbank on his way out.
Troopers also got a 911 call from an American Legion employee who saw the incident. He said he heard someone yelling “Put down that gun” and “Quit pointing that gun at me.”
Gill interviewed the two women. They said they had been at the American Legion and leaving when Kirksey pulled up in his older model Oldsmobile. He drove around the parking lot and followed them. They said they drove to an area by the building that had cameras there. Kirksey got out and tried to open the locked doors of their car, calling them profane names. Both women told Gill that Kirksey’s actions made them fearful. The women knew Kirksey from previous encounters.
Gill and two other troopers later talked to Kirksey at his Ninilchik home. He said he had gone to the American Legion to confront one of the women and drove around the parking lot following them. Gill said Kirksey admitted the women “probably” did not want to stop driving and agreed he was “kind of” trying to force them into stopping. He said his actions were not “gentleman like.”
He said he pulled a gun because we was “hurt” and “f—-ed up.” After denying he had a gun, he later showed troopers a Beretta Model U22 .22LR caliber handgun. Kirksey said he got the gun from a friend he could only name as “a big Indian dude.”
Gill wrote that Kirksey said he had not put a magazine in the gun when he went back to confront the women and Mireles, but then changed his story and said he had put a magazine in the gun. Kirksey believed the safety was on when he fired the Beretta at Mireles, he told troopers. Kirksey told troopers he regretted his actions and was ashamed of himself.
In his affidavit, Gill wrote that a records check showed Kirksey had felony convictions out of Kansas. Kirksey told troopers he had been convicted of robbery, and completed his parole in March 2011. According to online Alaska court records, Kirksey has a prior 2016 conviction in Alaska for failure to stop at the direction of an officer. In that case he was ordered to complete 40 hours of community work service.
After the interview, troopers arrested Kirksey on the assault and other charges and took him to Wildwood Pretrial Facility in Kenai. Before being placed in jail, Gill wrote that Kirksey told him that if he had been able to open the women’s car, all he wanted to do was give one of the women a hug.
Kirksey has been assigned an attorney with the public defenders office. A hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at the Kenai Courthouse. He is in custody at Cook Inlet Pretrial Facility in Anchorage.
Reach Michael Armstrong at marmstrong@homernews.com.
