• Soldier gets 12 years in Christmas Day killing at Alaska base

    U.S. Army via Reuters

    U.S. Army official photo of Army Specialist Marshall Drake.

    By Yereth Rosen, Reuters

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A U.S. Army soldier was sentenced on Thursday to nearly 12 years in a military prison for shooting and killing a fellow soldier early on Christmas Day, officials said.

    Army Spc. Marshall Drake, stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, shot Pvt. Grant Wise in the face in what military prosecutors described as an alcohol-fueled joke that went awry.

    Drake was convicted and sentenced in a military proceeding held Wednesday and Thursday on the Anchorage base. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday to violating military rules by failing to register his gun and storing the weapon in his barracks, but he defended himself against the charge of involuntary manslaughter.

    At the hearing, Drake's attorney described the shooting as a tragic accident that was not the defendant's fault, Army officials said.

    But military prosecutors presented testimony from a witness and other evidence showing that Drake had pointed the gun at Wise's face and fired, with the apparent belief that the weapon was not loaded, Army officials said. The two had been drinking all night and the witness testified that both appeared intoxicated prior to the fatal shooting, officials said.

    A military judge ruled that Drake's gross negligence caused Wise's death, said Army spokesman John Pennell.

    "It was an accident. However, it was an accident of his own making," Pennell said.

    Drake, 23, will be demoted to the rank of private and dishonorably discharged and will lose all pay and benefits, Pennell said.

    Drake, from Mount Pleasant, S.C., joined the Army in 2009 and served in Afghanistan from December 2011 to October 2012, officials said

    Wise, from Fairport, N.Y., was 25. He joined the army in 2011 and was assigned to Fort Bragg in North Carolina before being transferred to Elmendorf-Richardson, officials said.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Police: Disabled Wal-Mart customer guns down manager over service dog

    By Yereth Rosen, Reuters

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A wheelchair-dependent double amputee has been charged with shooting and critically wounding an Alaska Wal-Mart manager over a disagreement about a service dog.


    Daniel Pirtle, 45, was caught while attempting to flee the Anchorage store on his motorized wheelchair, according to police reports about the Saturday incident.

    He was charged with first-degree assault and weapons misconduct, and on Tuesday declined a public defender, telling the judge that he preferred to represent himself. "I know how to do that," he said at the pre-indictment hearing.

    The shooting left Jason Mahi, 33, in critical condition at a local hospital, a family member said.

    The dispute was over a service dog used by Pirtle, according to police reports. Mahi was shot in the abdomen after he asked Pirtle to leash the dog. An off-duty police officer shopping at the store detained Pirtle, according to police reports.

    Pirtle had two pistols with him at the store and later admitted to detectives that he had shot Mahi, according to an information report filed by the local district attorney.

    Mahi's brother, Brandon Mahi, said the victim remained unconscious on Tuesday. "We're just praying every day," Brandon Mahi said after Pirtle's brief court appearance.

    He said the family is upset that Wal-Mart continued to do business after the shooting. "They just kept running like nothing even happened," he said.

    Dianna Gee, a spokeswoman at Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., said that, "considering the circumstances," store employees "did an amazing job at handling a very difficult situation."

    "Their focus was on tending to the medical-emergency needs, getting help to the scene and making sure there was no immediate threat to the customers," Gee told Reuters, adding that the company had been providing support to Mahi's family since the shooting.

    Although police secured the shooting scene on Saturday, the store did not close after the incident, said Anita Shell, a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Police Department.

    If Mahi dies, murder charges will be added, said Anita Shell, a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Police Department.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Serial killer found dead in Alaska jail cell, officials say

    A man accused of murdering an Alaska woman and at least seven other people has taken his own life, according to police. KTUU's Rhonda McBride reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A confessed serial killer awaiting trial for the kidnapping death of an Anchorage teenager was found dead in his jail cell Sunday in an apparent suicide, law enforcement officials said.

    Israel Keyes had admitted to abducting and killing 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, who disappeared in February from an espresso stand in Anchorage, officials said at a news conference Sunday.


    Keyes also admitted to killing a Vermont couple, Bill and Lorraine Currier, in June 2011, and up to five more people whom he did not name, prosecutors said.

    Keyes revealed his past crimes in dozens of hours of interviews conducted after he was arrested for Koenig's death, officials said.

    "He did tell us that he had killed other people and that there were bodies of up to four other people in Washington state, as well as a body disposed of in New York state," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Feldis said after the press conference.

    There may be even more murder victims, Feldis said.

    Keyes also admitted to two bank robberies, one of them committed in Texas after Koenig's murder, Feldis said.

    FBI officials said they considered Keyes to be a serial killer, NBC station KTUU reported.

    "We've developed information that he was responsible for multiple additional victims. To our knowledge there are no other victims here in Alaska. They're all in the Lower 48," FBI Special Agent Mary Rook told the station.

    "We do know he traveled extensively and he didn't always stay where he landed. He would land in one airport, rent a car and drive hundreds of miles,” she added.

    AP

    Alaska barista Samantha Koenig, 18, was abducted after she closed up a coffee stand in Anchorage.

    Father of abducted barista, 18, pleads for her return

    The FBI told the station that it had spoken with its behavioral analysts in Quantico, Virginia, to get insight into Keyes’ personality.

    "He was very, very sensitive to his reputation," Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew said, according to KTUU.  "As odd as that sounds, we had to keep things extremely quiet in order to keep him talking with us."

    Details about the cause of Keyes' death were not released, but a spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers said he was alone in his cell and that foul play was not suspected.

    Texas arrest in case of abducted 18-year-old Alaska barista

    Sunday's news conference was the first public release of many details about a case that has transfixed Anchorage residents.

    Koenig's disappearance from the coffee stand in February triggered a city-wide search and a reward fund. Keyes was arrested in Texas after using a debit card linked to Koenig.

    Investigators found Koenig's body in early April in an iced-over lake north of Anchorage. Officials said Sunday that Keyes' initial confession led them to that location, and that he had admitted using a chainsaw to cut a hole in the ice to dump her body in the lake.

    Body in icy lake is missing Alaska barista, police say

    Koenig's body is the only one of Keyes' victims that has been found, officials said Sunday.

    Although Keyes told investigators that he placed the Curriers' bodies in an abandoned Vermont house, that house was demolished and searchers were unable to find the victims' remains at the site, officials said.

    Law enforcement officials described Keyes as methodical and a frequent traveler, able to conceal his actions and dispose of his victims' bodies without easy discovery.

    Keyes, 34, was a self-employed carpenter and Army veteran who had been stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington state. He moved to Anchorage in 2007. He also had a house and property in Constable, New York.

    He had been scheduled for trial in March on federal charges, and faced a possible death penalty.

    The investigation into Keyes' crimes - some of which date back 14 years - will continue, a process that could take years, officials said.

    "Mr. Keyes never showed no remorse for his actions," Feldis told KTUU.

    Michelle Tasker, a spokeswoman for the Koenig family, told KTUU Sunday that news of Keyes' apparent suicide was not the outcome they wanted.

    "We would've obviously liked for him to have gone in front of a jury of his peers and answer for what he's been accused of doing," said Tasker. "He did an injustice again to Samantha."

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Anchorage breaks 57-year-old record for snow in one season

    Dan Joling / AP

    Mallards take off from ice as a juvenile trumpeter swan swims by on Friday, April 6, 2012, at Westchester Lagoon in Anchorage, Alaska. The waterfowl made an appearance as nearly an inch of snow was falling on Alaska's largest city.

    By msnbc.com staff

    Anchorage on Saturday surpassed a 57-year-old record for snowfall in one season, the National Weather Service reported.


    The old record of 132.6 inches in Alaska's largest city occurred in 1954-1955, it said. But 3.4 inches of snow that fell from midnight to 4 p.m. local time pushed the season total to 133.6 inches -- more than 11 feet, the National Weather Service said.

    The total is nearly double Anchorage’s normal amount, The Associated Press said.

    The city was 2.5 inches short of the record going into Easter weekend, NBC station KTUU said.

    Snow began falling Friday morning, with 0.8 inches accumulating. More fell overnight Friday and throughout the day Saturday.

    The season got off to a slow start, KTUU said.

    The first snow didn't arrive until the Oct. 30. But each month from November to February there was above-normal snowfall, KTUU said. November saw the greatest snowfall, with 32.4 inches, close to three times the average for the month.

    By March, Anchorage was on pace to shatter the record, but a slightly below normal month seemed to dim the chances of breaking the 1954-55 record, KTUU said.

    No snow fell from mid-March until Friday, The Associated Press reported. Going into April, 3.3 inches were still needed to break the record.

    Records have been kept at or very near the current location near the Ted Stevens International Airport since 1953.

    City snow removal crews have hauled more than 2.5 million cubic yards of snow to the city's six snow disposal sites, which are close to capacity, The Associated Press reported. Maintenance and operations director Alan Czajkowski said that volume would almost fill the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

    At the height of the snow overload, many residential streets were rimmed by snow-walled canyons that towered over fences and shielded homes. Some roofs collapsed, mostly on older commercial buildings with flat roofs.

    On Friday afternoon, falling ice outside Anchorage crushed a car, trapping a 32-year-old woman inside and shutting the Seward Highway. Rescuers and passersby freed the woman and got her to a hospital, where she is recovering with severe head and neck injuries.

    This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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  • Body in icy lake is missing Alaska barista, police say

    Mark Thiessen / AP

    FBI Special Agent in Charge Mary Rook addresses a news conference in Anchorage, Alaska, on Monday.

    By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Divers searching an icy Alaska lake found a body they believe is of 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig, who was abducted two months ago from a drive-up coffee stand, authorities said Monday.

    A dive team recovered the body in icy Matanuska Lake, about 35 miles northeast of Anchorage, Police Chief Mark Mew told reporters at a news conference, and will conduct forensic tests to confirm that it belongs to Samantha Koenig.

    Investigators believe she died within hours of her Feb. 1 abduction from the Anchorage coffee stand, Mew said.


    "Investigators further believe that the person responsible for Samantha's death acted alone, and we're confident we have that person in custody," he said, adding that charges for Koenig's kidnapping and murder "will be forthcoming."

    The sole person held in connection with Koenig's disappearance is Israel Keyes, a 34-year-old Anchorage construction contractor.

    He was arrested last month in Lufkin, Texas, and charged in federal court with illegally using another person's bank card to withdraw cash in various states. He has pleaded innocent and was being held without bail.

    AP

    Anchorage barista Samantha Koenig, 18, in this police file image.

    Koenig was forced from her coffee stand at the end of her evening shift by what appeared to be an armed man, according to security-camera video. The video was not publicly distributed, but police said it showed a thin white man abducting the barista.

    Self-defense lessons
    The case has gained a lot of attention in Anchorage. Posters of Koenig have been prominently displayed around town and family members and friends established a reward fund for information leading to her return. Supporters have held candlelight vigils for the missing teen, and volunteers have offered self-defense lessons to other Anchorage baristas.

    Mary Rook, special agent in charge of the FBI's Anchorage Division said investigators believed there was no connection between the abductor and the Koenig family, according to NBC News Alaska affiliate KTUU.com.

    KTUU.com: Samantha Koenig's Body Found in Matanuska Lake

    Rook credited callers and officials who provided information in the case from Alaska, as well as the Lower 48, for their role in the investigation.

    AP

    This undated handout photo provided by the Anchorage Police Department shows 34-year-old Israel Keyes.

    "We received hundreds of phone calls from people in Anchorage and from many locations across the Lower 48," Rook said.

    "Likewise, when assistance was required in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, local, state and federal authorities moved quickly to support and move this investigation forward. In fact, were it not for the efforts of several very alert and dedicated Texas law enforcement officers, Samantha's abductor may still be at large."

    NBC News and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Texas arrest in case of abducted 18-year-old Alaska barista

    AP

    This undated handout photo provided by the Anchorage Police Department shows 34-year-old Israel Keyes.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A man has been arrested in Texas in connection with the disappearance of 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig, who was abducted from a drive-up Alaska coffee stand six weeks ago, police said on Thursday.

    Israel Keyes, the owner of an Anchorage construction company whose website says he served three years in the U.S. Army and moved to Alaska in 2007, was arrested on Tuesday in Lufkin, Texas.

    He was identified as a "person on interest" in the disappearance of Samantha Koenig, who was seized from the coffee stand on February 1, the Anchorage Police Department said in a statement.

     

     

    She is still missing, and police remain hopeful she is alive.

    Keyes' arrest was coordinated by Anchorage police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, local law-enforcement agencies in Lufkin and the Texas Rangers, according to the statement.

    NBC News affiliate KTUU's Ted Land reports on Israel Keyes' background

    He was being held at a federal facility in Beaumont, Texas, Anchorage police said. Details of the charges against Keyes were not released, and the federal arrest warrant was sealed, police said.

    AP

    Police say there is little doubt barista Samantha Koenig, 18, was abducted after she closed up a coffee stand Wednesday night.

    Koenig's whereabouts remain unknown and the public was still being asked to supply any potential information, Anchorage police said.

    Koenig was abducted as she finished her evening barista shift in an incident recorded on the coffee stand's video camera.

    Posters identifying her as kidnapped are displayed around Anchorage. Friends and supporters held a candlelight vigil two weeks after her disappearance, and a reward fund has been established by her father and others for information leading to her safe return.

    Det. Slawomir Markiewicz told the Anchorage Daily News that two Anchorage detectives had been in Texas for several days prior to the arrest working on the case.

    The Daily News reported that Markiewicz would not say if Keyes matched the description of the man seen in the video.

    "He's the only person we charged, and the only person of interest," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "And the biggest thing at this time is that we haven't found Samantha Koenig and we don't know her whereabouts."

    Missing barista abducted from coffee stand, Anchorage police say

    The Anchorage detectives will remain in Texas for several more days serving search warrants, he said. When asked if the arrest meant police are closer now to finding Koenig, Markiewicz replied, "Of course."

    Keyes, who has also lived in Washington state, was arrested in a restaurant parking lot in front of onlookers, according to Lufkin television station KTRE which first reported the story.

    It said he was first pulled over after committing a traffic violation, following which investigators found enough evidence in the vehicle to arrest Keyes for suspected kidnapping, it reported.

    Keyes' website says he moved to Alaska in 2007 and is "yet to have a dissatisfied customer". There was no answer at the Anchorage telephone number on the website when msnbc.com called.

    The Anchorage Daily News said neither Markiewicz nor Koenig's father know how Keyes might have known Koenig.

    "We haven't found evidence linking him to her," Markiewicz told the newspaper. "We don't know if he knew her before (she disappeared)."

    He added: "As I've said before, I believe this case will be solved. This is a step toward that goal, a big step."

    Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

  • Father of abducted barista,18, pleads for her return

    AP

    Alaska barista, Samantha Koenig, 18, pictured in this undated photo released by the Anchorage Police Department.

    By Abby Hancock, NBC affiliate KTUU.com

    Surrounded by friends, family and supporters, James Koenig has pleaded for the safe return of his 18-year-old daughter Samantha, who police in Alaska say was abducted from the coffee bar where she worked.

    Surveillance video shows Samantha taken from Common Grounds Espresso in Anchorage by an armed man on Wednesday. Her father is using the scene of the crime as a meeting place for those who want to help. He says Samantha is a sweet girl, describes her as "everybody's best friend" and says he knew something was wrong when she didn't come home from work on Wednesday.

    "I want to ask for her captors that they will please send my daughter home, I will give you anything in this world. Call me anonymously, you don't have to go through the police, I will meet you, I will give you whatever you want," says Koenig.

    Samantha's boyfriend Dwayne says he spoke with her just minutes before she was abducted and says "everything was fine." He was supposed to give her a ride home from work.

    "I had the only means of transportation for her and I got off work and went to go get her, and she wasn't there. It was a mess," says Dwayne.

    There are no new details in the investigation since Friday, when APD called it an abduction. Samantha's family is offering more than $12,500 as a reward for her return and is hoping to sell green ribbons, Samantha's favorite color, to raise the reward money.

    "Every day she's gone the odds are against us -- and I need the whole community to find my daughter, go door-to-door, every neighborhood. Anything suspicious, no matter how small you think it is, call the police," Koenig said. "Just please help find my daughter."

    Anyone with information on the abduction is asked to call APD at 786-8900. Supporters created a Facebook page where people can download fliers and offer support. The family is accepting donations for the reward. An account is set up at Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union.