On Wednesday, Sand Point fisherman, 42-year-old Duke Ogata was arrested at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and charged with Assault III, Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance II, and Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance III after being shot 10 days earlier by Sand Point police Chief Benjamin Allen, according to the Alaska State Troopers.

Troopers did not reveal where or if Ogata was taking a flight at the time of his arrest, but it is believed he was fleeing the state. He was transported to the Anchorage Correctional Complex and remanded there on his charges. He had been in Anchorage for treatment of his gunshot wound sustained on September 1st.

It was in the early afternoon on September 1st as Sand Point police were watching the Lady Joanne at the port in Sand Point that contact was made with Ogata. The vessel had been seized on a search warrant, awaiting the arrival of the statewide drug task force. Unbeknownst to the officers, Ogata boarded the vessel. Officers were alerted when the vessel’s engines fired up, and Chief Allen saw Ogata in the wheelhouse.

Ogata locked himself in the wheelhouse and threw the vessel first into forward, then reverse, in an effort to break away from its moorings. The vessel tore out dock pilings. Chief Allen broke a window attempting to unlock the wheelhouse door. Orders were issued for Ogata to stop the boat which he ignored.

As the chief was working to unlock the door, Ogata raised a black tactical ax, and asked the chief, “‘Do you really want to die over this?’” In response, the chief raised his sidearm and shot Ogata in the chest. Ogata, now downed, was found to also have a Beretta 9mm handgun on his person.

Emergency medical care was provided to Ogata and the vessel was returned to the harbor. Ogata was medevaced to Anchorage for treatment of his gunshot wound.

The investigation of Ogata and the vessel was initiated on August 25th after the vessel was reported by the U.S. Coast Guard. The USCG said in the report that a large amount of drugs were possibly onboard. Several days later, the Coast Guard boarded the vessel as it was en route to Sand Point for a safety check and interviewed the captain and crew, who, they reported, appeared disoriented.

When the vessel arrived in Sand Point on August 31st, a search warrant was served and Ogata and one of the two crewmembers who had an active warrant were taken off the vessel.

That crewmember and Ogata attempted to reboard twice on September 1st, and Ogata would be successful at getting onto the vessel later that day.

The task force searched the vessel and seized approximately 600 grams of methamphetamine and 35 grams of heroin valued at $970,000.

The investigation into the officer-involved shooting is still ongoing.

  drugs, heroin, meth, ogata, sand point, shooting