A 30-year-old man was shot Wednesday night while stealing items from a home in Houston, Alaska State Troopers said.
This is the second time within a week that a burglary escalated into a shooting in Mat-Su. A 22-year-old man died the morning of Dec. 17 when a woman in a home near Wasilla’s airport shot him after he broke into the home and attacked her husband, troopers said.
In the recent incident in Houston, Kahleb Johnson entered a garage and was going through items when the residents saw tracks leading into the building and confronted him, troopers spokesman Tim DeSpain said in an email Friday.
When confronted, “Johnson grabbed a lamp that was in the garage and attempted to use it as a blunt weapon,” DeSpain said. Johnson also tried to grab a gun from the resident, but was shot twice, troopers said.
Troopers were called to the home around 7:30 p.m. and provided first aid to Johnson, who was transported to the hospital for injuries described as not life-threatening, they said.
The residents were not harmed, DeSpain said. Johnson “was not directly known” to them, he said.
Troopers said charges of assault and burglary were forwarded to the district attorney’s office. They had not yet appeared in an online court database by Friday afternoon.
Troopers said the prior shooting on Dec. 17 occurred after Justice Beaudoin-Martinez entered a Wasilla home through a sliding-glass door. A fight began when the residents noticed Beaudoin-Martinez in the home and the woman fatally shot him in defense of her husband, who was stabbed in the arm, troopers said.
Beaudoin-Martinez did not know the people who lived in the home, according to troopers.