ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The handgun used to wound an Anchorage police officer last weekend has been linked to five previously unsolved homicides this year in Alaska’s largest city, police said Tuesday.

Lt. John McKinnon, head of the city police’s homicide division, said the Colt Python .357 revolver was linked through ballistics to two double homicides and one other killing.

The gun was used by James Dale Ritchie, 40, early Saturday morning to ambush police officer Arn Salao, who was responding to a report that a man hadn’t paid a cab fare.

Even after he was shot repeatedly, Salao returned fire as he jumped out of his police cruiser. Sgt. Marc Patzke arrived at the same time and also shot at the suspect, Tolley said. Ritchie was killed in the exchange.

McKinnon said the guns had been used in the July 3 shootings deaths of Jason Netter and Brianna Foisy, whose bodies were found on a trail near downtown Anchorage; in the July 29 death of Treyveonkindell Thompson, who was found on an isolated street, and the Aug. 28 deaths of Bryant De Husson and Kevin Turner, who were both shot in the Valley of the Moon Park near downtown Anchorage.

Detectives continue to look into Ritchie’s past, and McKinnon asked the public to provide any information they could about him.

“He hadn’t been on our radar for a while in Anchorage, so that’s part of what they’re trying to determine is, where he’s been, who he’d lived with, what other contacts he had,” said Anchorage District Attorney Clint Campion. “He hasn’t had any real police contact in the last decade in Alaska.”

Campion said the five homicide cases remain open because the link to the gun provides investigative leads that need to be pursued. He said Anchorage police would be working with various agencies in the state in the investigation.

The gun was not registered to Ritchie, police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said.

“What I’d be looking at is to see what the evidence is and which way that points us,” Campion said. “I think the firearm is a significant lead in that direction, and there’s other investigation that need to be done.”

Tolley said actions of Salao and Patzke in returning fire at Ritchie were heroic and “made sure that this individual will not hurt any one of you or any one of the citizens of Anchorage. I’m so very, very proud of them.”

Salao was hit at least four times in the lower part of his body, with bullets fracturing bones, ripping apart muscles and going through the intestine and lodging in his liver, Tolley said.

He underwent seven hours of surgery on Saturday. Tolley said the officer is recuperating at an Anchorage hospital, and has been moved out of the intensive care unit.

“The officer is a fighter,” Tolley said, adding Salao is determined to live.

Salao has been a patrol officer since joining the force in October 2011. Patzke has been with the force since November 2007.

Associated Press reporter Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report. </s> A gun used to shoot a police officer Saturday morning was the same weapon used in at least five homicides in the city so far this year, including two unsolved double homicides, Anchorage police said Tuesday (Nov. 15).

The Anchorage Police Department officer who was wounded, Arn Salao, was shot four times and underwent two surgeries after the confrontation, but was recovering and expected to survive. The suspect, 40-year-old James Dale Ritchie, was killed after Salao and Sgt. Marc Patzke — who arrived during the shootout — returned fire, police said.

"We know from our investigation in the last 78 hours that the gun used to attempt to kill officer Salao was the same gun used in five other homicides here in Anchorage in 2016," APD Chief Chris Tolley said at a news conference Tuesday.

Those five homicides are:

• The July 3 killings of Brianna Foisy, 20, and Jason Netter Sr., 41, on a bike path near Ship Creek;

• The July 29 death of 21-year-old Treyveonkindell Thompson on Bolin Street in East Anchorage;

• The double homicide of Kevin S. Turner, 34, and Bryant "Brie" DeHusson, 25, early on the morning of Aug. 28 at Valley of the Moon Park.

Tolley previously described Saturday's shooting as an "ambush" that came as the officer responded to a report of a theft suspect. Salao was shot while he was still inside his patrol vehicle, APD spokesperson Jennifer Castro said.

Castro stressed Tuesday that although the gun used to shoot Salao — a Colt Python .357 — had been linked to the five homicides, police were still investigating Ritchie's possible ties to those crimes.

It wasn't clear if Ritchie, an East Anchorage High School graduate, had any connection to any of the victims in the summer homicides.

"We still have not linked the suspect to these cases, so we still have more work to do," she said.

"Our investigations are open," said Lt. John McKinnon, head of APD's homicide and robbery/assault units. "The big thing is that the cases are still pending and we'll follow the evidence wherever it goes, and we'll make determinations on what cases we can or cannot close at a future date."

Police said Tuesday another as-yet-unsolved double homicide, which took place in January at Point Woronzof, was not connected to the other homicides.

Who was James Ritchie?

James Dale Ritchie grew up in East Anchorage and was a standout athlete at East Anchorage High School. He and his two sisters and parents lived in a home in the Wonder Park neighborhood, public records show.

At East, Ritchie was an offensive lineman on the 1994 state championship football team, according to news articles from the time. He also played on the state championship basketball team. Teammates remember him utilizing his 6-foot, 3-inch frame as a power forward.

"There were colleges looking at him in high school," said Donteh DeVoe, a former basketball teammate who played alongside Ritchie at East. "He had potential to go on to the NFL. He was a great athlete."

"He was a happy, positive person in high school. It's shocking to me," said Mao Tosi, another high school teammate.

Ritchie graduated from East in 1994, the same year Arn Salao — the Anchorage police officer injured in Saturday's fatal encounter — was attending the school as a freshman. It wasn't clear if the two men were acquainted with each other.

After high school, Ritchie's athletic dreams were derailed by drugs and a felony record. His first encounter with police occurred in 1998, four years after he graduated.

According to charging documents in that case, officers following up on a drug sale investigation encountered Ritchie in an Anchorage apartment. Ritchie, whom officers greeted by his street name of "Tiny," immediately reached for his waistband when officers came into the apartment. A loaded semiautomatic handgun fell out of his pant leg, according to charging documents.

A search revealed ammunition on Ritchie, along with a number of folded bills and a baggie filled with several rocks of crack cocaine. Officers also found an electronic scale in the bedroom and the owner of the apartment told police Ritchie and her son were apparently selling drugs.

Ritchie pleaded no contest to felony misconduct involving a controlled substance in the third degree. He was sentenced to three years probation.

In a letter to the judge in his case, Ritchie wrote that he "lay in bed every night thinking about how I've ruined my life. Then I sit up crying wishing I could go back to when I was in high school."

Ritchie wrote he would have "chosen a small Division II school to go play football at instead of a Division I college."

"I want to finish college, raise a family and buy a house," he wrote. "Instead as a felon I'll never be able to get a good job."

It's not clear whether Ritchie actually played college football.

There was more trouble to come.

On parole in 1999, Ritchie was pulled over for driving erratically near Columbine Street and DeBarr Road. Ritchie told officers he had been drinking tequila and beer and taken two Prozac pills. Officers found crack in the glove box and a loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun in the passenger seat, as well as an open beer on the passenger floor of the car, court records show.

Ritchie again pleaded no contest to fourth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance. He was sentenced to three years probation.

In the year 2000, Ritchie filed for a business license for a vending machine servicing operation called Ritchie Enterprises, using his parents' address. It's unclear whether it got off the ground.

From 2002 to 2005, Ritchie was arrested several times for parole violations, mostly serving time for those violations in halfway houses, according to state Department of Corrections spokesperson Corey Allen-Young.

In 2005, Ritchie was arrested for first-degree burglary after police responded to a report of an East Anchorage break-in. Officers found a large wad of money on Ritchie totaling almost $5,500 and eight zip ties in his front coat tied into a set of "flex cuffs." Two guns were later found in the house occupants of the residence said did not belong to them.

Ritchie pleaded no contest in the case. Allen-Young said Ritchie spent just over two years in custody before being released on Nov. 16, 2007.

Ritchie had not been in correctional custody in Alaska since then, Allen-Young said.

The last time Ritchie applied for a Permanent Fund dividend was in 2009, according to public records. The last time he had a listed address in Anchorage was a house on Lane Street, in the Russian Jack neighborhood, in 2011.

It appears he spent some time in Virginia after that, where his parents live in Broadway, a small town not far from the West Virginia border.

Court records in Harrisonburg/Rockingham District Court show minor traffic infractions for Ritchie in 2013 and 2014.

Police said Tuesday Ritchie returned to Alaska this February.

On his Facebook page, he posted pictures at the end of January from travels around the Lower 48. Police are still investigating where Ritchie was living in recent months.

He was not homeless, and may have resided at more than one location, said Castro.

"We are hoping to get more information from the community about his daily whereabouts and activities," she said.

Reached separately by phone, Ritchie's mother and sister declined to speak on Tuesday.

"The last time I'd seen him was at a restaurant about a year ago," said DeVoe, Ritchie's former Thunderbirds basketball teammate. "He still looked young and healthy. It seemed like we were back in high school."

It was a brief encounter that ended with a smile and a hug, DeVoe said.

Rumors and fact

Authorities had been tight-lipped about a number of unsolved Anchorage homicides this year, despite the involvement of the FBI and widespread rumors a serial killer was roaming the city or that some of the killings were linked.

Witness accounts allowed police to create a sketch of a "person of interest" in the Treyveonkindell Thompson case. The FBI offered a $10,000 reward in early September for information in the case that generated more than 175 tips, according to an investigative timeline released by police on Tuesday. Police had also canvassed neighborhoods and homeless camps in areas near the shootings.

The State Crime Lab determined "a few days" after Thompson was killed that the same gun was used in the deaths of Foisy, Netter and Thompson, Castro said. That information was not made public.

After the Valley of the Moon killings, police determined the same gun was used again. At that point, "police still did not know who the shooter was or if there was more than one," according to the investigative timeline. Tuesday marked the first time police publicly acknowledged Turner and DeHusson had been shot.

Police say they withheld the fact that the same gun had been used in the five homicides — even from the families of the victims — over concerns releasing it would compromise the investigation.

McKinnon said police were trying to preserve the evidence — a strategy he believes led to the recovery of the gun after Saturday's shooting.

"If we had made a big deal about it, then it might have gotten lost or disposed of," McKinnon said.

"Without the ballistics and that gun, we had no evidential way of tying these cases together," Castro said. "That's how important that gun is."

The victims' families found out about the connection between cases prior to a Tuesday morning press conference, according to Billy Ray Turner, Kevin Turner's brother.

On Monday night, police contacted Kevin Turner's family and told them to come to a conference the next morning, said Billy Ray Turner. It was the first time they'd heard from law enforcement since shortly after his brother was killed at Valley of the Moon, he said.

Billy Ray Turner said he initially searched for answers in his brother's death, but detectives told him not to go digging. They weren't specific about details, but he said they told him if Kevin Turner was killed in such cold-blooded fashion, Billy Ray might be in danger if he came in contact with the person responsible.

His mother worried about the same scenario, so he stood down.

He started to think his brother's homicide investigation had turned cold, and another family could lose a loved one with the killer still on the streets, he said.

He said his family was hurt APD didn't provide details sooner, particularly how Kevin Turner died.

That's something he still hopes to find out.

"I want to know where was he shot, how long was he alive, did he suffer? These are the things I'd like to know," Billy Ray Turner said, adding he hoped the new evidence would serve as a turning point for more transparency in the case.

In late August, a notice went out to the public to avoid isolated trails or roads alone at night, though APD declined at that time to say if the warning was related to any of the recent homicides.

"We were trying to balance the best of both worlds without jeopardizing a case or investigation," Castro said of the warning.

Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said police briefed him Monday afternoon on the revelation about the weapon used in the five unsolved homicides. He said he was previously unaware of any connection between the slayings.

Berkowitz said he had "actively stayed away" from pursuing information from police about the cases, citing his two years of experience in the Anchorage district attorney's office in the early 1990s.

"I think it's inappropriate for the civilian authority to intervene in a police investigation," Berkowitz said.

Berkowitz also said he did not think the police erred in withholding the information, or inappropriately prioritized an investigation over public safety.

"I would suspect that the police had access to all kinds of psychological understandings of what a person who is engaged in this kind of behavior would do and how they would behave, and shaped their investigation accordingly," Berkowitz said.

He added: "I think it's a vast oversimplification to think that the police should have compromised their investigation simply to inform the public about the course of their investigation. There's a real possibility the wrong communication at the wrong time could have jeopardized public safety." </s> Update

The Anchorage Police Department has released the name of Friday's homicide in Mountain View as 24-year-old Fa'avea Sea.

Police say that detectives have determined the shooting to be an isolated incident.

Original Article

Anchorage Police are investigating a homicide after a man died from an overnight shooting in Mountain View.

Police report that dispatch received a report of a shooting in the 100 block of Price Street around 5:00 a.m. Saturday.

A man was taken to a local hospital with life threatening injuries. Around 1:45 p.m., Anchorage police announced that the man had died from his injuries and that the death was being treated as a homicide investigation.

The name of the dead man is not currently being released by police. APD announced that detectives had questioned several people in connection to the man's death but that there was no suspect information to release at this time.

Meanwhile, Anchorage police are investigating a second midtown shooting that sent one man to the hospital with life threatening.

APD says officers with the patrol division determined the man was shot in the 8800 block of Old Seward Highway. An acquaintance drove him to the hospital after he was said to have been shot in a parking lot near a food truck.

Detectives with Anchorage police are looking for more information to help with the investigation and have questioned several people. </s> Updated 6:30 a.m.

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.

Updated 4:30 p.m.

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 had entered the barricaded home. Szajkowski is being held on charges of kidnapping and assault at the Anchorage Jail.

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A separate standoff at Ginami Street on the Anchorage Hillside is on-going. Jennifer Castro, a spokersperson for APD, identified the suspect as 69-year-old Robert Musser, who’s been charged with felony assault and wrecklessly firing a weapon.

Updated 2:00 p.m

Two officers have been wounded by gunshots by a barricaded suspect in an on-going standoff in South Anchorage.

“One officer was transported to a local hospital for treatment where he is expected to survive,” wrote APD spokesperson Jennifer Castro in a release sent to the public at 12:48 p.m. “The other officer’s injuries were treated at the scene.”

The suspect in the Ginami Street residence is not in custody in a standoff that’s 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.”

Though charges were announced, Castro said the department doesn’t identify suspects until they’ve been taken into custody. Castro declined to specify what kind of firearm was used against the two officers.

This is one of two barricaded standoffs happening right now in the municipality, and the third since the start of the week.

On Misty Springs Court, not far from the University of Alaska Anchorage campus, officers have been on the scene since early this morning after getting reports of an assault. The suspect is believed to be armed, and APD said in a release, it has issued charges for assault and kidnapping.

Castro said about a dozen people from APD were responding to the Misty Springs Court residence, and getting assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“A lot of our SWAT resources are dedicated over here,” Castro said, referring to the 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 are on-scene assisting.

Asked why there’s been such an intense cluster of standoffs in the last few days, Castro responded, “We have no idea.”

Original Post

Anchorage police are still working to bring a man into custody 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.

APD says the man fired shots again just after 4 p.m. Wednesday, when officers attempted to make contact with the man, who has barricaded himself in his home.

Officers eventually made verbal contact.

Efforts to resolve the situation, including the deployment of gas into the man’s home, have been unsuccessful, so far.

The situation is ongoing. </s> AKULIVIK, Que. – A woman who saw police fatally shoot a man suspected of killing three people in this northern Quebec village says she hasn’t been able to sleep since Saturday’s incident.

Meeko Aliqu said she ran outside of her home after her 17-year-old son told her there had been a stabbing, and witnessed the confrontation between the police officers and the 19-year-old suspect.

“The police officer said ‘Drop it! Drop it!’ in Inuktitut,” she told The Canadian Press in a phone interview.

She said officers fired when the suspect did not drop his knife.

READ MORE: Police fatally shoot 19-year-old in northern Quebec after stabbings leave 3 dead

“The police officer he shot him — maybe eight shots, I don’t know,” she said. She said the suspect got up and tried to enter a residence before being shot again.

“He’s going inside the house but the police officer, he shot again one more time inside the house,” said Aliqu.

Quebec’s police watchdog the independent investigations unit said it’s alleged the suspect broke into three homes and stabbed five people. Three of the victims, including a 10-year-old boy, died. Two others suffered serious injuries and were taken to hospital Saturday.

Residents say the tragedy has shaken Akulivik, a remote village located on a peninsula jutting into Hudson Bay, some 1,700 km north of Montreal.

“The whole region is in shock and is devastated. We’re receiving messages from all over the world sending us support,” said David Qaqutuk, a manager with the regional landholding corporation.

He says everyone knows everyone in the close-knit town, where residents are known to share food and take care of each other.

“All of the victims were the quiet kind. I never noticed the suspect being angry or anything,” he said.

READ MORE: Toddler, 3, found unconscious in swimming pool in Drummondville, Quebec

While he won’t speculate on the causes of the tragedy, he said the small towns lacks resources to help people who are struggling.

“We don’t have any AA meetings or healing facilities,” he said. “The only thing that can help is in Kuujjuaq (600 km away), when not everyone wants to be there.”

In a statement released Saturday, the investigations unit said police intercepted the suspect as he was preparing to enter a fourth residence while armed with a knife.

READ MORE: Armed man shot and killed by Montreal police

According to preliminary information, police fired to stop the suspect from entering, then fired a second fatal shot when he began to move toward the officers.

The investigations unit sent a team to the village to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

Quebec provincial police, who are investigating the stabbings, said their officers were at the scene but did not provide any other updates as of early Sunday afternoon. </s> ABC News(PHOENIX) — The fourth murder in a string of killings that began with the shooting of prominent forensic psychologist Steven Pitt in Phoenix has now been linked to the first three, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

Pitt, who consulted with law enforcement on a handful of prominent cases, including the JonBenet Ramsey murder and the Jodi Arias trial, was shot and killed outside his office in Phoenix on Thursday night. An eyewitness said he heard Pitt loudly arguing with someone followed by gunshots, according to police.

Law enforcement officials told ABC News on Sunday that this person is the only known eyewitness to any of the murders. The suspect was described by police as a white man wearing a black cap with a short brim.

Scottsdale police had already connected the Friday afternoon killings of paralegals Veleria Sharp, 48, and Laura Anderson, 49, to the same suspect.

The murder of Marshall Levine, who was killed just after midnight Saturday in Scottsdale, Arizona, has now been linked to the same gun used in all four murders, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The sources said the motive in the four killings remains unclear, but this is likely “family related.” The law enforcement officials said they have a bead on a “couple” of possible suspects.

Levine’s ex-wife, Carol Kleinman, told ABC News that Levine was a psychiatrist, but was only licensed to practice in New Jersey.

Since moving to Arizona, Kleinman said Levine worked as a life coach and hypnotherapist and dealt with clients who often “are angry.”

Levine’s body was discovered by an acquaintance inside of his Scottsdale office in a neighborhood known as The Greens at Gainey Ranch — about 17 minutes from where the paralegals were shot.

Law enforcement officials told ABC News on Sunday that one of the two paralegals actually crawled to a limo bus after being shot and alerted the driver, who called police. Police followed the trail of blood left by that woman to find the other, shot to death in the pair’s law office.

“We are confident that both crime scenes are related,” Phoenix Police Department spokesman Sgt. Vince Lewis Lewis said Saturday of the shootings of Pitt and the two paralegals.

Steven Pitt & Associates is headquartered in Phoenix, but Pitt worked on a number of nationally known cases, including Ramsey’s murder. The murder of the 6-year-old beauty pageant competitor who was found dead in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado, has never been solved. Pitt was brought on in February 1997 to help develop a psychological profile of Ramsey’s parents, according to multiple reports at the time.

Pitt also consulted on cases including the Columbine High School massacre, Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault case and the Phoenix serial killer known as the “Baseline Killer,” who was sentenced to death for murdering nine people in 2005 and 2006.

No connection has been publicly announced between Pitt and the two paralegals or Levine.

A $21,000 reward was being offered for an arrest and conviction in the four murders. </s> ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A second person has died of injuries suffered in a weekend shooting at an Anchorage home.

Anchorage police on Monday said 47-year-old Brenda Smalley died of injuries suffered early Sunday.

A man whose name had not been released also died.

Police responding to a call of shots fired at about 2 a.m. Sunday found the shooting victims inside a bathroom of a home on east Sixth Avenue.

Both Smalley and the man were shot in the upper body. Two other adult family members were in the home.

Police say the shooting was isolated and related to domestic violence. Detectives are not looking for suspects. </s> NEW YORK (AP) - The Latest on the fatal shooting of a New York City police officer (all times local):

Police say a 12-year veteran New York City officer was fatally shot while sitting in her patrol car with her partner in what one sergeant is calling a "clear assassination."

Police Sgt. Brendan Ryan says 48-year-old Officer Miosotis Familia died at a hospital early Wednesday. He says the attack "appears to be an isolated incident - clear assassination."

They say a person believed to be a bystander was struck by a bullet and is in stable condition.

The attack happened in the Bronx around 12:30 a.m. While the injured officer's partner radioed for assistance, other officers spotted the suspect running and confronted him. Police say the officers shot and killed the suspect after he drew a revolver on them.

Police say a New York City officer who was shot while sitting in her patrol car has died in what they're calling a "clear assassination."

Police say other officers shot and killed the suspect after he drew a revolver on them. They say a person believed to be a bystander was struck by a bullet and is in stable condition.

The attack happened in the Bronx around 12:30 a.m. while the officer was sitting in her vehicle with her partner. Her partner radioed for help. Other officers spotted the suspect and began chasing him.

The suspect has been identified as 34-year-old Alexander Bonds.

Ryan says police are unaware of any connection between Bonds and Familia.

Authorities say a New York police officer has been shot and is in extremely critical condition.

The New York Police Department wrote on Twitter that the officer was shot while in a patrol vehicle with her partner in the Bronx early Wednesday.

While her partner radioed for assistance, other officers confronted the suspect, who was running, one block away. The suspect drew a revolver and the officers fatally shot him.

Police say another person, believed to be a bystander, was also struck by a bullet. The person is in stable condition.

The 12-year veteran officer has been hospitalized at St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition.

Authorities say the investigation is ongoing.

Authorities say a New York police officer has been shot and is in extremely critical condition.

The New York Police Department wrote on Twitter that the officer was shot while in a patrol vehicle with her partner in the Bronx early Wednesday.

While her partner radioed for assistance, other officers confronted the suspect, who was running, one block away. The suspect drew a revolver and the officers fatally shot him.

Police say another person, believed to be a bystander, was also struck by a bullet. The person is in stable condition.

The 12-year veteran officer has been hospitalized at St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition.

Authorities say the investigation is ongoing. </s> Four people have been killed in a shooting spree in the village of Kratovo, southeast of Moscow, where a man barricaded himself in his home and opened fire on by-passers. The gunman was killed as he tried to shoot his way out of the police cordon.

After authorities surrounded the house, the suspect engaged law enforcement in a firefight, with the sounds of gunfire and grenade blasts echoing through the locality. Four officers sustained light injuries before police and the National Guard shot and killed the gunman, following the hours-long stand-off.

“The shooter was blocked. For several hours he was shooting, throwing grenades. There were 14 explosions, four special forces were injured. Their injuries are light, nothing is threatening their lives,” said Russian Minister of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, who traveled to the scene to take personal charge of the situation.

At least four people were killed by the gunman, including two found dead in the suspect’s house after officers stormed it.

The drama played out in the village of Kratovo in Moscow’s Ramensky District, where the man, named by neighbors as “Igor,” barricaded himself in his house and opened fire on by-passers and police.

The house was swiftly cordoned off and special forces from the Russian National Guard were deployed to the scene.

During the stand-off, the suspect’s father arrived at the scene, pleading with his son to surrender. His pleas, however, were only answered with more shots.

After nightfall, the suspect reportedly escaped the house, but remained within the perimeter of the cordon and was pinned down and killed by authorities. His house reportedly caught fire and burnt down as authorities didn’t allow the fire crews into the area.

Read more

An investigation is now underway to determine the exact circumstances surrounding the encounter and a murder investigation has been launched.

"The case is being brought in three parts – article 317 [threatening the life of a law enforcement officer], article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation [illegal arms trafficking] and part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code [killing two or more persons]," according to local Interior Ministry director Elena Fokina.

READ MORE: Shooter kills 8 in Mississippi, says ‘suicide by cop’ was plan after running out of bullets

The suspect had no guns officially registered to him, according to authorities.

Locals told reporters that Igor had served in the conflict in Chechnya, lived with his mother and may have been suffering from a mental condition.

A neighbor told Ren TV that Igor had previously worked at the OMON (riot police) and MChS (Ministry of Emergency Situations).

“He was hurt in the MChS, and afterwards spent some time in a mental hospital,” the neighbor said.
Police in Anchorage, Alaska link a gun that a suspect used in the attempted murder of a police officer, to five unsolved homicides in the city which occurred over the summer. The suspect was killed during the murder attempt.