An officer with the Alaska State Troopers is on administrative leave following an officer-involved shooting after a suspect produced a handgun and pointed it at troopers while confined in the back of a trooper patrol vehicle on Saturday afternoon.

Troopers received a report of a suspicious man walking on a Soldotna homeowner’s property in the woods at 2:45 pm on Saturday and responded to the scene and made contact with the suspect.

Because of the cold weather, the trooper offered to give the man a ride home, and the man accepted. As the trooper was giving the man a  ride, the man produced a handgun and began brandishing it. The  trooper brought  his patrol vehicle to a stop and successfully exited.

Additional troopers were called in, as was SERT. EMS were also called in and were staged close to the scene.

Troopers began negotiations in order to get the man to relinquish his handgun, the man refused. The negotiations continued until 5:06 pm, then the man pointed the firearm at troopers, and AST fired on the suspect.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]Following the shots-fired, the suspect was transported to the Central Peninsula Hospital by EMS. The Alaska Bureau of Investigation has taken over case responsibility as the investigation continues.

The troopers involved in the shooting have been placed on the department’s mandatory 72 hour leave.

  hospitalized, shooting, soldonta, suspect, trooper