Quinton Chandler, KTOO

Juneau is under a winter storm warning and forecasters are expecting one of the city’s heaviest snowfalls in a couple of years.

Bob Tschantz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the storm warning is in effect until 9 p.m. Wednesday night.

“We’re expecting now a total of 10-15 inches of snow by Wednesday evening,” Tschantz said.

Winter Storm Warning now in effect for the #Juneau area. 10-15″ of snow forecast from Tue through Wed PM. #akwx pic.twitter.com/IKDexR73Is

— NWS Juneau (@NWSJuneau) December 6, 2016

Tschantz said the likelihood of that much snowfall is “fairly high.”

He said the storm warning is a departure from Juneau’s mild winters and low snow amounts measured over the past couple of years.

“Yeah this is … this will be one of the bigger events so far in probably at least a couple of years,” Tschantz said.

Tschantz said residents should be careful on the roads and if people don’t keep their driveways clear, they could end up with a big buildup on Wednesday.

Yellow crime scene tape, flashing lights and the Juneau Police Department’s Mobile Incident Command Center are simply out of place on quiet, rain-soaked Ocean View Drive.

The isolated neighborhood on the outskirts of Juneau woke to gunfire early Saturday morning when Juneau police shot a man they said didn’t comply with an officer’s instructions. The man is expected to survive.

According to the Juneau Police Department, this was Juneau’s first officer-involved shooting in almost 10 years.

Eric Forrer is building a house in the area and was awake early in the morning.

“4:30 in the morning … gunshot.” (It) got my attention, Forrer said. “I’m thinking, somebody spotted a deer somewhere. Then lots of lights, lots of traffic, I didn’t stick my head out the door.”

Forrer said he went out later at a “decent hour” and asked his son who lives next door, “What happened?”

“Well, I woke up to gunshots … gunshot, gunshots, (I’m) not really sure,” Leif Forrer said.

He held his baby boy as he recalled that he saw flashing “strobe lights” through his windows and realized that something was seriously wrong. He put on his clothes, went into the street and asked his neighbors what they knew.

“An officer arrived on scene shortly there after and asked me to go home,” Leif Forrer said. “He was real polite and answered my questions and made me feel safe in that I was wondering if they were looking for someone or had someone at large.”

He said the officer told him there wasn’t a manhunt and everything was under control.

“So I came home and locked my doors and basically just told my wife what was going on,” he said.

According to Juneau Police Department, a 38-year-old Juneau resident was shot by police after he and another man crashed into a ditch in the 16500 block of Ocean View Drive. They haven’t been identified.

Juneau Police Chief Bryce Johnson said at a press conference Saturday that the man who was shot did not follow officers’ orders and one of the officers felt he had to shoot him.

“The man who was shot has been medevaced to Seattle and is expected to survive. We understand he is in serious, but stable condition,” Johnson said.

Johnson said police did not find a weapon at the scene. He said the two officers involved in the shooting are on administrative leave while their actions are investigated. Per department policy, he said their names won’t be released until Monday at the earliest.

“My detectives have been on scene since early this morning preserving and cataloging evidence,” Johnson said. “The investigators from the Alaska Bureau of Investigations will be in town shortly. They will have full and complete access to the scene and will conduct their investigation.”

Johnson said the Juneau District Attorney, James Scott, will also have access to the scene.

Scott said he will be joining the investigation alongside the state Department of Law’s Office of Special Prosecutions, and the Alaska Bureau of Investigation as part of a new protocol for officer-involved shootings statewide.

“Unfortunately it’s a practice that the Office of Special Prosecutions has had an opportunity to develop with regard to officer-involved shootings in Fairbanks and Anchorage,” Scott said.

Johnson said he doesn’t know when the investigation will end. He estimated it could take several weeks – depending on the information they uncover.

“Our goal is to conduct a very thorough, very professional, very transparent investigation so we can give very clear answers for what occurred and why what occurred happened,” he said.

No charges have been filed against the man who was shot. Johnson said he has had run-ins with police before and he said in the past, the victim has made threats to harm police officers.

Police will be using the officers’ vehicle dash cam video and audio recordings to help piece together what happened. Police said road access to the part of Ocean View Drive where the shooting occurred would most likely be partially shut down until late Saturday.

Leif Forrer didn’t seem worried about the road closure. He said he was happy that the police reached the scene quickly and were doing their jobs.

Editor’s note: A line was added to this story to clarify that police did not find a weapon at the scene. 

Update | 6:48 p.m.

A Bartlett Regional Hospital spokesperson says the five people taken to the hospital from the car accident are all in stable condition.

Community Relations Director Katie Bausler said there were two minors and three adults admitted. All were evaluated in the emergency room.

Original story | 6:21 p.m.

The intersection of Egan Drive near Fred Meyer was closed Friday evening after five people were injured in a four-vehicle accident.

Lt. David Campbell with Juneau Police Department said the accident was reported at about 4:15 p.m., but he didn’t know what caused it.

Campbell warned that traffic was slow and backed up. Inbound and outbound lanes were disrupted and diverted while emergency personnel worked the scene.

Campbell didn’t know the extent of the victim’s injuries.

As of 6:15 p.m., inbound lanes were flowing. Inbound access to Glacier Highway at Fred Meyer remained closed. Outbound lanes were diverted at Sunny Point up to Fred Meyer.

Luann Powers is the school nurse at Auke Bay Elementary School. She’s in a class checking on a student whose blood sugar is too low – which can be dangerous, unlike head lice.

“Well, I guess when you think about bugs in your head, it’ll creep anybody out,” Powers said. “People are embarrassed when they have head lice, and it can take away — because of the time it takes for treatment — it can take away from a student’s time in the school.”

Head lice are an ongoing problem for Juneau schools and Powers said this is a common time of year to find them. She said lice are mostly a social problem.

“Head lice are a little creature that is spread through contact … close contact of, it could be hats, combs, any kind of headgear, clothing, bedding,” Powers said.

The creepy crawlers don’t mean an automatic ticket home. Only live lice can keep a kid out of school and Powers said when they’re found, usually the host student can stay through the end of the day.

“Because if they’ve had them in the morning, they’ve probably had them for a few weeks anyway once they’re noticeable,” Powers said.

Parents are asked to get rid of the lice when they get home and then the student will be checked when they return the next day. If there are still live lice, the kid goes back home until they’re gone.

“They are a nuisance,” Powers said. “They’re not a health hazard. They can create discomfort because they need to feed off a human blood supply to survive. They can create a lot of itching, but not always.”

Scratching can lead to infection if the kid’s fingernails are dirty. She said it’s especially important to educate parents and explained how to get rid of lice using special hair products.

“Over the counter products that families use, such as Nix or RID and LiceMD is another product in the community,” Powers said. “It’s a cream rinse or a type of shampoo that they are supposed to leave in the hair for a certain period of time and then rinse it out, and then it’s a matter of combing out the nits.

Nits are lice eggs. Powers said nits aren’t enough to force kids out of school, but they aren’t welcome either. Powers said some products claim to remove them, but she still advises parents to literally nitpick their kids using special combs to take them out. This can take as long as two hours.

Powers said people who catch head lice are often considered dirty, but that’s not accurate. She said lice can be caught by anyone and kids tend to catch them outside of school.

“As a matter of fact, I used to work for a pediatrician a few years ago and he said, ‘Gosh, if you haven’t had head lice, you haven’t had friends,’” Powers said.

Powers said when she finds lice, she tries to be discreet and downplays the situation for the kids’ self-esteem. But she said in her experience, it’s usually the adults who overreact.

Chris Mannino has a 6-year-old named Ila who she home-schools and takes to the independent learning center in Tenakee Springs all three days it’s open.

She said she only started thinking about home school after the town’s school closed back in 2013.

“Prior to that time, no absolutely not, home schooling was barely a word I knew. It was nothing that we were pursuing or interested in,” Mannino said.

The school reopened, but ever since, Mannino has been doing research to help figure out how she would home-school her daughter. She said that’s why this year when the school shut down, she was ready.

“So, I wish our school was open,” Mannino said. “I wish we had enough students to have a regular school. That would be my first choice. But since we don’t, I feel like I’ve had time to prepare to do this.”

The Tenakee Springs School closed this summer after its enrollment fell to single digits. But then, the school building reopened as an independent learning center that gives home-schooled kids a place to socialize and take part in group activities.

Mannino enjoys being so close to her daughter but said sometimes it’s kind of tough.

“Home-schooling a 6-year-old, there is no break,” she said.

Tenakee Springs is a small Southeast Alaska town on Chichagof Island about 46 miles southwest of Juneau. In 2015, the state reported it had about 140 residents. It also has a small student body that fluctuates from year to year. Frances Ziel said some families were already choosing to home-school before the closure. After the school shut down, she said the district wanted to support them.

Ziel is a regional school board member for the Chatham School District who also lives in Tenakee Springs. She said last school year, enrollment dropped from 11 to five students when one family moved away. State education funding drops sharply when enrollment falls below 10.

“What we decided to do was turn the brick-and-mortar building into an independent learning center,” Ziel said.

The learning center gives the community a chance to use at least some of the school’s resources.

She guessed there are about 12 school-aged kids in town and seven of them enrolled in distance education through the Chatham School District. The district is working with an accredited distance learning school that sends parents materials to help them home-school. What parents can’t provide at home, their children look for at the learning center.

“All children that are enrolled in Chatham School District can come here three days a week,” Ziel said. “They have two tutors here that are available if they are so needed or wanted by the students or parents.”

Kids are also given access to the school’s library, gym and classrooms; and they can come to special events like an upcoming talk on octopuses.

Mannino said she would get a lot more downtime during the day if her daughter were going to traditional school. Without the learning center, she’d almost get none.

“And that’s one thing that’s been really nice about the independent learning center. Ila can work with Megan and another couple of younger children for an hour or two, three days a week,” Mannino said.

Megan Bush is the independent learning center’s facilitator.

“Pretty much anything and everything that the ILC needs, that’s me,” she said.

One of her duties is to supervise a 4-year-old, and two 6-year-olds including Ila, Chris Mannino’s daughter, during the afternoon.

“So I consider my job to be providing opportunities that they’re not getting in their home school education. A big part of that is, especially for the younger ones, is social time,” Bush said.

The learning center is open three days a week from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and it serves kids of all ages. Bush said the building could easily accommodate 20 to 25 kids if the town had that many. Instead, she usually sees less than 10.

“From 9 to 11, I’m tutoring the middle and high school students,” Bush said. “I have one middle schooler and four high schoolers that come up here regularly and two more that come up here more occasionally.”

Chris Mannino isn’t sure what her family would’ve done if they had to home-school without the learning center. She said moving would’ve been one option on the table.

Juneau police said a Super Bear Supermarket employee trying to stop a thief Saturday morning was dragged after his arm was caught in the suspect’s car window.

According to the Juneau Police Department, 18-year-old Dylan Barger robbed the Super Bear and was trying to get away when an employee reached into the passenger-side window and tried to take back the stolen property.

Police reported that Barger rolled the window up trapping the employee’s arm, dragged him with the car and punched him several times in the face.

Police said Barger did not use a weapon in the robbery.

The store employee was taken to Bartlett Regional Hospital where he was treated and released.

Witnesses described the vehicle for police and gave them a partial license plate number. Less than two hours after receiving the report, officers found the vehicle and Barger at a home in Mendenhall Valley.

Barger was arrested and faces a felony robbery charge and two misdemeanors, including fourth degree assault.