WASILLA -- The Talkeetna man charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of another resident in a local bar a week ago told an investigator he killed the man because he thought he was pulling a weapon on him.
"He (Dirk Fast) was sitting there acting real fishy, and he is usually not acting that way toward me," Samuel E. Clark told Alaska State Troopers investigator Ron Hayes after fleeing from the Latitude 62 bar and being stopped at Mile 6.5 of Talkeetna Spur Road shortly after the fatal incident, according to charging documents filed in Palmer District Court.
Clark, a 40-year-old hunting guide, told Hayes that he and Fast were talking at a table near the bar.
"Clark stated that he was talking to Fast about moving to Missouri to find work, but that he had trouble getting across the border due to a previous DUI," Hayes wrote in a police affidavit. "Clark indicated that during the conversation, Fast began 'getting fidgety' and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, rubbed his leg and raised his shirt up. Clark indicated that he thought that Fast was attempting to pull a weapon. Clark said 'I pulled the ... pistol out and shot him.' Clark further indicated that he meant to shoot Fast and that he intended to kill him."
Hayes reported that the bartender, Ruby Fortner, stated that Clark ordered an iced tea and sat at the table near the end of the bar. Shortly thereafter, Fortner saw Fast get up from the bar, walk over to Clark and engage Clark in what she described as a "friendly conversation."
After about 15 minutes, she heard a gunshot and looked over to see Fast fall to the ground and Clark holding a silver semi-automatic pistol.
Fortner stated that Clark said Fast "killed my family," then he left through the back door, according to the trooper's report.
Fast was shot in the chest. No weapons were found on his body or in his vehicle, the trooper said.
Clark is being held in the Palmer Pre-Trial Facility on a $500,000 cash bail.
Fast, 53, worked as a longshoreman at the Port of Anchorage and is a 1976 graduate of West High School. He also had a son and daughter-in-law in Anchorage and was about to become a grandfather, according to Talkeetna friend Mike Sterling.
Doug Hendricks, who had known Fast since the 1970s, shared some thoughts on him from Barrow.
"I am just tremendously saddened," Hendricks said. "This just shouldn't happen. I wish people would take off their goggles and realize that their actions destruct the lives of so many people outside their own bubble. So many people loved and cherished Dirk as a friend, and family are suffering a loss that words cannot describe. He was a good-hearted friend."
Contact K.T. McKee at kmckee@adn.com or call 907-352-6711.
By K.T. McKEE
kmckee@adn.com