Troopers release video of fatal shooting in Tok after state finds officer’s use of force justified

The Alaska Department of Public Safety on Friday released video footage of a man’s fatal shooting by a state trooper nine months ago at a Tok motel. The release was prompted by the recent completion of a state investigation that found the involved trooper’s use of force was justified.

The Office of Special Prosecutions sent a 17-page review of the shooting to Col. Maurice Hughes, director of Alaska State Troopers, on July 11. The review determined Trooper Timothy Rosario would not face criminal charges in the Oct. 30 death of 21-year-old Timothy Thomas Jr.

This is the first time the Department of Public Safety has proactively released video of an officer shooting, said spokesman Austin McDaniel.

In the brief dash-camera footage released Friday, Thomas can be seen walking outside a row of motel rooms away from Rosario while swinging a rifle that looks like an AK-47. Once Thomas reaches the end of the building, he is seen falling to the ground.

The dash-camera footage does not have audio, but Cmdr. Tony Wegrzyn of the Alaska Bureau of Investigation said Rosario shot Thomas three times. He died at the scene.

Rosario had not yet been outfitted with a body camera when the shooting happened. The Department of Public Safety began outfitting officers with cameras on a limited basis in May 2023. They were all wearing cameras by the end of the year.

The dash-camera footage is part of a longer 12-minute video released by troopers that includes narration by Wegrzyn and audio from four 911 calls. McDaniel said the department edited the video and audio together with narration to make it easier to see what was happening.

“Law enforcement uses of force can be complicated topics that are difficult to understand,” he said. “We felt it was a better service to the public to provide context and information of what was occurring so that way Alaskans had the best information that they could, along with audio and video, to be able to clearly see the actions of their state troopers.”

While the dash-camera footage is playing, Wegrzyn’s narration provides justification for why Rosario said he shot Thomas.

“Due to the imminent threat to the life that Thomas posed to the innocent bystanders in the motel rooms and the danger that Thomas would pose to the trooper if a position of cover was achieved behind the building or a vehicle, the sole trooper on scene shot at Thomas three times,” Wegrzyn said.

Rosario told investigators he’d given multiple commands to Thomas to drop his weapon before the shooting, but he refused, according to the Office of Special Prosecutions review.

The four 911 calls came from a man inside one of the motel rooms who told the dispatcher Thomas was drunk, was trying to break into his motel room and would not leave. The subsequent calls detail escalating behavior, including Thomas trying to kick in the door to the room, attempting to break in through a window and approaching other rooms. The 911 caller and Thomas knew each other.

Dispatchers aired information over the radio while Rosario was en route to the motel indicating that Thomas “will resist arrest,” according to the state’s review. Rosario knew Thomas from at least three previous encounters, including a standoff and another interaction where Thomas lunged at and threatened him, the review said.

When the shooting occurred, Thomas was out of custody on bail in two criminal cases, including one in which Rosario was the arresting officer, according to the review. Thomas was facing charges of assault, misconduct involving a weapon and violating conditions of release.

A family member later told troopers that Thomas had told her and others that he “was going to ‘go out’ by ‘suicide by cop,’” the state’s review said. She said he told her he’d tried to get officers to shoot him during his last encounter with them, the review said.

An autopsy showed that Thomas’ blood-alcohol content was nearly three times the legal limit allowed to drive and that he had cocaine in his system when he died, according to the state’s review.

Video footage in recent police shootings

The footage from Thomas’ case released Friday is the first in a series of shootings that have happened after the state’s largest law enforcement agencies — Alaska State Troopers and the Anchorage Police Department — began using body cameras. Anchorage police were fully outfitted with cameras in March.

Anchorage officers have shot five people since mid-May, killing three and wounding two others. The department has faced mounting public pressure to release video of the shootings, and former police chief designee Bianca Cross had cited a longstanding Alaska Department of Law practice that instructed law enforcement agencies not to release such videos because it could jeopardize court cases.

McDaniel said the law department’s instructions are also why Alaska State Troopers did not release footage earlier.

Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case changed the department policy this week to call for release of footage within 45 days. The municipal attorney said during a meeting with the Assembly last week that the city hopes this will act as a deadline for the Office of Special Prosecutions to complete their investigations.

The state office is working to speed up their investigations into police shootings and has doubled the number of prosecutors handling the cases, according to John Skidmore, deputy attorney general for the state Department of Law’s Criminal Division, who spoke at a news conference last week.

The department recently completed reviews of officer shootings involving Tyler May, who was killed by Anchorage police in early June outside the Anchorage Senior Activities Center; Kaleb Bourdukofsky, who was injured in early June when Anchorage police responded to reports that he’d shot and killed someone downtown; and Victor Jack, who state troopers injured outside a Wasilla home in February.

The officers involved in all three shootings were found to be justified in their use of force and will not face criminal charges. No law enforcement officers in Alaska during recent years have faced criminal charges in connection with an on-duty shooting.

[State finds police use of force justified in June fatal shooting outside Anchorage senior center]

Case said last week that the Anchorage Police Department aimed to begin releasing footage from some recent shootings in the coming weeks.

McDaniel said Friday that troopers will not be immediately releasing footage of the shooting involving Jack, even though the Office of Special Prosecutions report is complete, because there is an active criminal investigation in the case. Jack is facing a charge of third-degree assault stemming from the encounter with troopers when he was shot.

McDaniel said troopers are not releasing the footage because of the guidance from the Department of Law.