A 29-year-old Fairbanks man is being held at Fairbanks Correctional Center on a charge of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of his grandmother.
According to a Fairbanks Police Department news release, officers found the body of 87-year-old Velma Koontz Tuesday after responding to a report of gunshots at an apartment on 22nd Avenue. Her grandson, Brian Davenport, is charged in connection with her death.
Police say they initially went to the residence after they got a 911 call just after 3 p.m. Tuesday from Davenport. Police say he gave the address on the 1800 block to the dispatcher, but didn’t answer questions.
According to a charging document, police sent an officer to check out the 911 caller and found Davenport pacing back and forth in the roadway in front of the apartment building. The officer talked with him, then transported him to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital for a mental-health evaluation, due to his reckless behavior, according to the court documents.
About a half-hour later, police returned to the residence after getting the call about shots fired there. Koontz’s husband told a detective that he and a neighbor found his wife’s body when they got back from a trip to the store.
The husband said he found his 38-caliber pistol outside as he was walking back into the building.
The officer who’d transported Davenport then went back to his hospital room, according to the charging documents. Police spokesperson Teal Soden said he then admitted he’d killed someone.
“And so he was transported to FPD, where detectives questioned him after reading him his rights,” Soden said. “He did admit to stealing his grandfather's handgun and to shooting his grandmother in the back of the head.”
Soden said Davenport told investigators that he initially had intended to shoot someone else.
“ But then he changed his mind and killed his grandmother instead,” she said. “During the interview he did acknowledge that he understood that killing someone is wrong, but he compared his decision to pulling the plug on a person.”
Soden said police then arrested Davenport for first-degree murder, and bought him to Fairbanks Correctional Center. He’s being held there on a $2.5 million bail.
