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Suspected Shooter Captured After 2-hour Manhunt Held on Attempted Murder Charges

A man who allegedly shot one person and fired on another Tuesday in Fairbanks is in custody.Fairbanks Police say 19-year-old Benjamin James Kameroff Akaran was arrested around 1 p.m. Tuesday after a two-hour manhunt that involved city police and Alaska State Troopers, armored vehicles and a helicopter.

Police say a man who Akaran fired shots at ran from an east-side residence and called 9-1-1 at about 11 a.m. reporting that Akaran had shot a woman. She was transported to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital with life-threatening wounds.

Police directed the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District to lock down an elementary and middle school during the search for Akaran. The district also placed a second elementary school into “sit-tight” mode, a lower-level security response.

Akaran was apprehended around 1 p.m. at a west-side residence about five miles from the shooting site. He’s now being held at Fairbanks Correctional Center, charged with attempted murder.

Akaran was arraigned this morning, but a correctional center worker said paperwork on whether a judge has set bail had not yet been processed.

A city police spokeswoman said today investigators don’t want to talk about what may have led to the shootings. She said an investigation is ongoing, and that police are asking members of the public to contact them if they have any information on the case.

Tim has worked in the news business for over three decades, mainly as a newspaper reporter and editor in southern Arizona. Tim first came to Alaska with his family in 1967, and grew up in Delta Junction before emigrating to the Lower 48 in 1977 to get a college education and see the world.