Alaska State Troopers shot and killed a man who fired at them Tuesday evening a few hours after he entered a Wasilla-area home uninvited while carrying a gun and an ax, the agency said.
Joshua Baert, 35, of Wasilla walked into the home around 5:45 p.m., demanding to see someone who wasn’t there, troopers said.
Baert didn’t make any threats, and left without incident once the residents told him the person wasn’t at the house, troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said. The gun he carried was a semi-automatic assault rifle.
He went into nearby woods, troopers said.
More than 10 troopers initially responded to the report of a man entering a home carrying weapons and started looking for him in the woods, McDaniel said. They could hear occasional gunshots but couldn’t see where they were coming from.
Baert was spotted briefly but didn’t follow troopers’ commands and kept moving through the woods, troopers said.
He ignored repeated requests to stop and drop his weapons, McDaniel said.
At about 8:15 p.m., troopers located Baert on South Edelweiss Drive, which is near West Hollywood Road.
He started firing at multiple troopers with a handgun, McDaniel said. They shot and killed him.
“There was an exchange of gunfire over multiple minutes,” he said.
Troopers say they later found an additional handgun, along with the rifle, on Baert’s body.
Per troopers policy, the officers who fired their weapons were placed on a three-day administrative leave. The Alaska Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident.