BETHEL -- A young woman was killed early Friday by gunfire in a Bethel home, and police are still trying to sort out what happened.
Police reported Friday afternoon that it appears Roseanne Pitka, 25, of Toksook Bay, suffered a fatal gunshot wound to her head.
Lt. Joseph Corbett said police cannot release much information at this early stage. "We're really in the infancy of this investigation," Corbett said.
Police have not determined whether the shooting is a homicide, he said.
"There's lots of possibilities," he said.
A man in the house, Quinn Angaiak, 34, of Bethel has been charged with misdemeanor weapons misconduct for being intoxicated and in possession of a firearm, police said.
A police statement filed in support of the charge gives this scenario:
Pitka, Angaiak and Jaclyn Nelson, 23, were in a house in Bethel's Larson subdivision early Friday. Nelson told police that all three were drinking. Angaiak went into the bedroom and the two women were talking in the living room, she said. Pitka went into the bedroom around 4:15 a.m. Nelson called another friend, then heard crying.
She went into the bedroom and saw Angaiak holding Pitka. There was a lot of blood. He told her to call police.
Just before 5 a.m., police received a report that someone had shot herself. When Sgt. Amy Davis arrived at the house around 5:30 a.m., she spoke with Nelson and Angaiak and both smelled of alcohol, Davis said in her statement.
When the women were talking in the living room, Angaiak felt left out, he told the officer.
"He said he was feeling neglected, so he went into the bedroom and took his gun out of the nightstand located next to the bed," Davis wrote in her statement. "He said he then put the gun to his head, because he was thinking about shooting himself."
But he decided not to kill himself and moved to put the gun on the bed.
"He said his finger accidentally hit the trigger and the gun fired into the bed," the statement said.
There was a bullet hole in the middle of the bed, Davis wrote.
Police are still compiling evidence, Corbett said. Nothing has been ruled out, he said. He said he cannot say whether police believe Angaiak shot Pitka.
The incident marks Bethel's first shooting death of the year.