Crime & Courts

5 officers fired at ‘distraught’ man with a gun in fatal Fairbanks encounter

Three Alaska State Troopers and two Fairbanks police officers fired their weapons at a man brandishing a gun who was killed Sunday in the northeast part of Fairbanks, according to authorities.

Alaska State Troopers on Wednesday identified those involved as: Trooper Elondre Johnson, with 14 years and 10 months on the force; trooper James Thomas, with three years, 10 months on the force; trooper Christine Joslin, two years and 10 months on the force; Fairbanks officer Richard Sweet, five years with the department; and Fairbanks officer Tyler Larimer, one year with the department.

[Family struggles from afar with shock of fatal police shooting in Anchorage]

Someone alerted troopers about a "distraught male with a firearm" walking down Marshall Drive around 6:20 p.m. Christmas Eve. He was later identified as Cody Eyre, 20, of Fairbanks.

Troopers and Fairbanks police found him at the intersection of the Steese Highway and Johansen Expressway. Troopers said he brandished his gun, which led officers to shoot.

The incident is under investigation and will be reviewed by the state Office of Special Prosecutions, as is standard procedure.

It was the third fatal shooting by officers in Fairbanks this year, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Anchorage police have shot and killed two men.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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