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HOONAH, Alaska — A 45-year-old man allegedly shot two police officers to death in a rural Alaska town before barricading himself and triggering a standoff, authorities said.
As of Sunday, the the incident was ongoing, authorities said in their latest statement.
The Hoonah, Alaska, Police Department on Saturday night contacted the Alaska State Troopers, asking for assistance after Hoonah officers Matthew Tokuoka, 39, and Sgt. Anthony Wallace, 32, were shot in what troopers described as an “ambush.” Both officers later died from their injuries.
A warrant has been issued for the arrest of John Marvin Jr., police said. Following the shooting, Marvin barricaded himself inside his home, according to Alaska television station KTUU in Anchorage.
State troopers sent Special Emergency Response Teams, and police from Juneau also deployed a tactical team, troopers said. The U.S. Coast Guard assisted in bringing resources into Hoonah, an island about 62 miles north of Sitka, Alaska, and 68 miles west of Juneau by ferry. The Coast Guard also launched a helicopter from Sitka to transport one of the wounded officers to Juneau.
On Sunday, other agencies were assisting, including the U.S. Forest Service and Alaska Wildlife Troopers, authorities said.
“We are offering up our condolences and our support to the community of Hoonah however we can,” said Col. Audie Holloway, director of the Alaska State Troopers. “Sadly, two police officers lost their lives. We hope to end this standoff without any further tragedy.”
The shooting leaves Hoonah, a town with about 800 people, with one officer -- the police chief, KTUU said. State troopers said they would be providing staffing for Hoonah police following the resolution of the standoff.
Businesses in the area were shut down, according to KTUU, and residents were asked to stay indoors and away from the area.
“We heard a gunshot and one of my co-workers looked out the window and he saw one policeman down,” witness Dirk Knehr told the television station. “He’d been shot, and another policeman was trying to drag him away and the suspect shot him twice. And then he just took off.”
Little was known about Marvin, KTUU said. “The only information we have is that he’s had problems with law enforcement in that community in the past, and there were some issues of stability,” Alaska State Troopers Capt. Barry Wilson told the station.
The shooting occurred about 10:30 p.m. Saturday (2:30 a.m. ET Sunday), KTUU said.
Wallace began working with Hoonah police in 2008, according to the station.
He was a 2008 graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, and a former campus police officer at the school.
“Tony, who was hard-of-hearing, proved remarkable at many levels,” the school said on its website. After joining campus police, he went on to attend the police academy, where he graduated as class valedictorian. An All-American wrestler, he was inducted into the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.
A Rochester Institute of Technology statement quoted from Wallace’s interview last year with the university’s news department. “I hope that people who are in the same situation as I am see my story and begin to believe that if you put your mind to something, you can achieve it,” he said. “Anything and everything is possible, it’s just a matter of how bad you want it and how far you are willing to go to prove to people that you are worthy of whatever career you want to pursue.”
Tokuoka, a former Marine Corps staff sergeant, was a native of Hawaii who had been with Hoonah police since 2009, KTUU said.
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