Tripp J Crouse, KTOO

Update | 4:04 p.m.

The victim of an officer-involved shooting is expected to survive, Juneau Police Chief Bryce Johnson said at a news conference Saturday.

Two Juneau police officers responded to a single-vehicle crash early Saturday morning. They determined the Jeep Cherokee involved in the crash was the same one that failed to stop during an attempted police traffic stop earlier.  Police did not pursue the vehicle.

“Vehicle pursuits are incredibly dangerous,” Johnson said. “People die all the time in vehicle pursuits, including the person in the vehicle, innocent third-parties and the police officers.”

“So we are unwilling to put the public in at risk of death unless there’s a significant crime that has occurred,” he said.

Johnson said that at the time of the attempted stop, JPD couldn’t determine if a significant crime had been committed.

Johnson said the driver in the crash, a 38-year-old Juneau man, refused officer instructions and a sergeant called dispatch to report that the man had barricaded himself in the vehicle.

One minute later, the officers requested medical assistance for the driver after he suffered a gunshot wound. An officer had shot him, according to a news release.

Johnson did not know how many times the officer fired.

“I do not know. There were not a whole bunch,” Johnson said. “I don’t want to speculate whether there was one or two. It was a small number.”

It is Juneau Police Department policy to withhold the names of officers involved in officer-involved shootings for a minimum of 24-hours.

Dash-cam videos and officer-carried digital recorders will also be part of the investigation.

“We do not have the body cameras in place now, so there were no body cam recordings,” Johnson said. “The vehicles that were at the scene are equipped with dash-cam videos. We have secured them. We do not know what they were able to capture yet at this point.”

Officers also carry digital recorders, Johnson said, and they will be part of the ongoing investigation.

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Update | 12:28 p.m.

A 38-year-old Juneau man injured in an officer-involved shooting early Saturday morning had been driving a gray Jeep Cherokee that failed to stop for a Juneau police officer earlier.

According to a police news release, a police officer attempted to stop the vehicle about 12:56 a.m. in the area of Egan Drive and Mendenhall Loop Road. The vehicle failed to stop for the officer, who did not pursue the vehicle.

About 3:55 a.m. a female Juneau resident called police dispatch and reported that her husband told her he had been in an accident out the road. Her husband, a 42-year-old Juneau man, was a passenger in the vehicle. He did not name the driver.

About 4:19 a.m., police located the single-vehicle crash in the 16500 block of Ocean View Drive. The vehicle was off the road and in the trees, according to the news release. Police positively identified the vehicle as the same Jeep Cherokee that evaded police earlier.

The driver was identified as a 38-year-old Juneau man.

Police said he did not comply with an officer’s instructions and an on-duty sergeant notified dispatch that the driver had barricaded himself in the Jeep.

Within one minute, officers requested medical assistance for the driver who had been shot one time by an officer.

Alcohol appears to be a factor in this incident.

The district attorney and Alaska State Troopers Bureau of Investigation are assisting in the ongoing investigation.

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Original story | 11:45 a.m.

A 38-year-old Juneau man injured in an officer-involved shooting early Saturday on Ocean View Drive has been medevaced to Seattle.

Two officers responded to a call about 4:19 a.m. to the 16500 block of Ocean View Drive, according to a Juneau Police Department news release.

Lt. David Campbell said the officers were responding to a vehicle crash. The officers contacted a man who was in the area. He was later shot by one of the officers.

Police did not disclose other details about the shooting.

“We’re still investigating the case and I don’t have the answers as far as as the chain of events that happened on the scene that resulted in the shooting,” Campbell said.

An ambulance transported the shooting victim to Bartlett Regional Hospital before he was flown to Seattle.

Neither officer was injured, according to the release. They have been placed on administrative leave.

Police withheld the names of the shooting victim and police officers.

Earlier, the police department Twitter account posted a tweet that Point Lena Loop Road was closed.

Point Lena loop Rd is closed. Emergency personnel are on scene.

— Juneau Police Dept. (@JuneauPD) December 3, 2016

Campbell said he didn’t know whether there were or would be charges filed.

An investigation is ongoing.

Police said more information will be released later today. A news conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. today.

The last officer-involved shooting occurred in 2007, when Juneau police officers shot and killed Randall Clevenger, 40. Clevenger reportedly raised a samurai sword and advanced on the officers.

Campbell said a 2012 incident in which former police Lt. Troy Wilson was involved was not classified as an officer-involved shooting because Wilson was no longer an officer and no active duty officers fired shots. No one was injured in that incident.

Two Juneau women were arrested and charged Wednesday after the station wagon they were driving struck a pedestrian, according a Juneau Police Department news release.

Police say the driver, Sharon Harris, 25, struck a pedestrian about 8:43 p.m. Wednesday on Foster Avenue in Douglas.

Harris is charged with driving while intoxicated, fourth-degree misconduct involving a weapon, fifth-degree misconduct involving a weapon, and driving without a valid license.

The pedestrian called police and reported the station wagon had a burned-out taillight and was damaged in the incident. The vehicle drove away down Cordova Street. The pedestrian declined medical treatment.

Police said the other woman charged with driving while intoxicated was initially the passenger, Sheryl Shorty, 23.

According to police, the occupants switched positions as an officer approached the vehicle during a traffic stop on Egan Drive near the Wharf.

Police say both women showed signs of alcohol impairment and both failed standard field sobriety tests.

Harris had a loaded, concealed handgun.

Harris and Shorty were arrested for driving while intoxicated.

At the police station, both registered breath alcohol levels over the legal driving limit. The vehicle was impounded.

State corrections records show they were both released from Lemon Creek Correctional Center on their own recognizance.

On Tuesday, Juneau police arrested a man who was wanted on charges of sexually abusing a minor.

According to a Juneau Police Department news release, officers learned Sergius Sheakley, 42, had an outstanding warrant issued by the Anchorage Superior Court. Police located him at a residence on North Douglas Highway.

He’s charged with at least five felony counts of various degrees of sexual abuse of a minor. Court records put the dates of the alleged offenses between 2005 and 2007.

Sheakley is being held at Lemon Creek Correction Center. Bail is set at $50,000 cash.

Juneau police announced Monday that it had arrested the man believed to be using stolen bank cards at area businesses.

According to a department news release, William “Billy” Moy Jr., 23, was arrested Nov. 15 on outstanding warrants for failing to appear in court for misdemeanor trespass and larceny charges. Police also believed he used and attempted to use stolen bank cards at about 10 businesses since Nov. 1.

Moy also is a person of interest in an attempted burglary of a storage unit Nov. 13 in the 8600 block of Airport Boulevard.

Moy was released on bond.

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During World War II, the U.S. armed forces utilized Native languages as a way to transmit indecipherable messages in the Pacific Theater.

It was a code the Japanese were never able to break, and it’s credited with saving the lives of thousands of troops.

The Sealaska Heritage Institute is hosting a series of noon lectures honoring Native warriors — past and present.

Tuesday’s lecture is about code talkers, a group of Native soldiers who helped transmit coded messages during World War II.

Rosita Worl is president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute.

“Of course, everybody’s heard about the Navajo code talkers. And I think we were all proud of them,” Worl said. “Whatever Native American group you were, I think, we were all very proud to know that the Navajo code talkers helped, you know, helped the United States and helped us to achieve victory.”

The Navajo weren’t the only code talkers.

Congress recognized 33 other Native groups in 2013 for their efforts during both world wars, including Tlingits.

The program was secret, but declassified in 1968.

“They were not aware, I guess, when that requirement was lifted, so they went to their graves without telling us,” Worl said.

In 2013, the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska at an event honoring more than 200 code talkers and their families.

Congress posthumously awarded five Tlingit men Congressional Silver Medals for their service as code talkers in World War II.

The honor came as a surprise to many, including the family of the code talkers.

“But for us it was people we knew. We grew up around these individuals but people will tell you that not once, not once did we ever hear that they talked, that they were code talkers,” Worl said.

Ozzie Sheakley is the commander of Southeast Alaska Native Veterans. He will speak about the Tlingit code talkers during a lecture sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Institute. It’s part of a series honoring Native veterans during Native American Heritage Month.

The lecture will also feature Judith Avila, who wrote “Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII.”

The lecture is noon Tuesday in the Walter Soboleff Building in downtown Juneau.

For more about the lecture series, go to SealaskaHeritage.org.

Correction: A previous version incorrectly identified the number of non-Navajo tribes honored for the service of Native code talkers. This version has been updated to correct the actual number.

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Tripp J Crouse

Tripp Crouse is the digital media editor for KTOO. Tripp covers crime, courts and general assignment topics for KTOO. Follow @trippcrouse

Juneau police have contacted the suspect in the investigation of two rifles recently stolen at the airport, but the firearms are still missing.

According to a police news release, officers contacted the man sought in the theft of the guns on Nov. 16.

“The suspect was interviewed and it was determined that further investigation was prudent,” police spokeswoman Erann Kalwara said via email.

Authorities said an unidentified man caught on security cameras stole two Remington Model 700 rifles, worth a total of $2,000, at the Juneau International Airport.

A 71-year-old briefly left the rifles in cloth cases leaning against an airport bench on Oct. 27, according to a police news release. He left the firearms unattended while he moved his belongings further down the curb to load into his vehicle.

When he returned to retrieve the rifles, they were gone, the release said.

A Remington Model 700 .35 Whelen and a Remington Model 700 .30-06 were valued at $1,000 apiece. Both rifles were equipped with slings and Bushnell Banner scopes.

After stealing the guns, police said the suspect left the area on a bicycle with the orange case secured to a rear rack.

Charges have not been filed and no one has been arrested yet.

Contact police at 586-0600 with tips about the missing firearms or the incident.