Update | 6:30 a.m. Friday
A standoff in Anchorage lasting more than 36 hours came to an end Friday morning.
The Anchorage Police Department says 69-year-old Robert Musser, who was barricaded in his home, is confirmed to be deceased.
APD says an investigation and autopsy will determine the cause and nature of Musser’s death.
Original story | 7:53 p.m. Thursday
Police say a barricaded standoff in Midtown Anchorage is over. According to a release from the Anchorage Police Department, 29-year-old Joseph Szajkowski surrendered shortly after 3 p.m. once officers entered the barricaded home. Szajkowski is being held on charges of kidnapping and assault at the Anchorage jail.
Officers had been on the scene on Misty Springs Court, not far from the University of Alaska Anchorage campus, since early Thursday morning after getting reports of an assault.
Anchorage police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said about a dozen people from APD responded and got assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“A lot of our SWAT resources are dedicated over here,” Castro said, referring to a separate South Anchorage incident. She estimated dozens of officers had rotated through during the course of the last 24 hours, and said personnel from the Alaska State Troopers were on-scene assisting.
As of 4:30 p.m., that separate standoff at Ginami Street on the Anchorage Hillside continued. Castro identified the suspect as 69-year-old Robert Musser, who’s been charged with felony assault and recklessly firing a weapon.
He was suspected of shooting at workers trimming trees Wednesday on a utility easement. Police initially responded to a call just before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday that a man confronted employees of Carlos Tree Service, who were trimming trees for Chugach Electric near his hillside residence. According to an APD press release, the man yelled at the workers, then brandished a firearm and fired shots at the two employees.
The workers were not injured. Two officers were wounded by gunshots by a barricaded suspect.
“One officer was transported to a local hospital for treatment where he is expected to survive,” Castro wrote in a statement released at 12:48 p.m. “The other officer’s injuries were treated at the scene.”
That standoff has lasted for over a day.
“I’m not aware of a standoff lasting this long,” Castro said by phone from the Ginami Street location.
Shots were fired on officers around 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to APD, as police were preparing to use gas.
“The environment that we’re dealing with here is a little different from a lot of the ones that we traditionally respond to as far as barricaded subjects,” Castro said. “We have a much larger residence with a lot more things spread out.”
Castro declined to specify what kind of firearm was used against the two officers.
These are Anchorage’s second and third police standoffs since the start of the week. Why there have been so many standoffs in the last few days?
“We have no idea,” Castro said.
