Crime & Courts

Troopers: 19-year-old threatened Kotlik school principal, then stabbed two people who intervened

A Kotlik 19-year-old tried to break in to the village school with a knife, threatened the principal and stabbed two people before being arrested Friday, Alaska State Troopers said.

Troopers were called to Kotlik, a village about 35 miles northeast of Emmonak in Western Alaska, at 12:58 p.m. on Friday for a report of a "person walking around… with a knife," according to a trooper dispatch posted Saturday.

Troopers said Rick Andrews was "upset about something" and trying to break into the K-12 school, which has an enrollment of about 180 students and was in session at the time.

"The principal of the school saw Andrews walking toward the entryway with a large knife in his hand," the dispatch said. "The principal initiated a school lock-down just before Andrews made it to the front door."

Andrews started hitting the door "and made verbal threats to the principal wanting to kill him and stab him," the dispatch said.

Troopers from Emmonak and Bethel immediately boarded planes to Kotlik.

The principal warned residents about the lockdown by VHF radio, troopers said. A man and a woman 'arrived on scene to help and both were stabbed in the chest and stomach area by Andrews," the dispatch said. "One victim managed to get the knife away and threw it into a nearby pond."

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Andrews fled but was apprehended by two other people in the village and held until troopers arrived and arrested him.

The injured villagers were transported to Bethel by LifeMed. Both were in stable condition as of Saturday.

Andrews was taken to Bethel, where he faces felony assault charges.

Michelle Theriault Boots

Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. She focuses on in-depth stories about the intersection of public policy and Alaskans' lives. Before joining the ADN in 2012, she worked at daily newspapers up and down the West Coast and earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon.

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