Several law-enforcement officers open fire after negotiations fail, man barricaded in home points weapon
The Alaska Bureau of Investigation is looking into the fatal shooting by law-enforcement officers of a heavily armed man who on Wednesday barricaded himself in his house near Ester.
An Alaska State Troopers news release says the incident began Tuesday, when 54-year-old Matthew Heller threatened a woman at his home with a rifle. She escaped unharmed and reported the threat.
Troopers went to the residence near Standard Creek to talk with Heller, but they left after observing that he was heavily armed , had barricaded himself in his house and that no one was in immediate risk of injury.
Trooper spokesperson Austin McDaniel says the Troopers’ Northern Special Emergency Reaction Team, or SERT, went to Heller’s home again the next day with an arrest warrant.
“So, the Alaska State Troopers Northern SERT team arrived at the residence right around 6:45 Wednesday night,” McDaniel said in an interview Thursday.
The news release says the SERT team members saw that Heller had again barricaded himself in the house and had piled-up some sandbags in front of doorways to prevent anyone from entering.
“There were sandbags stacked about 4 feet high on the outside, kind of near doors,” he said.
McDaniel said Thursday that Troopers and SERT members tried to negotiate with Heller over the next three hours to get him to come out of the house unarmed. At 10 p.m., officers saw Heller point a firearm at one of the SERT officers. And in response, several officers fired their weapons, fatally wounding him.
The news release says the officers unsuccessfully tried to keep him alive, but he was declared dead at the scene.
Alaska Bureau of Investigation officers then arrived to begin an investigation into the shooting. The news release says once that’s completed, their findings will be reviewed by the Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions. The state Department of Public Safety will identify the officers who fired at Heller on Saturday.
