A 24-year-old Tununak man has been arrested on a first-degree murder charge for the death of his 2-year-old son, who died from a gunshot wound, according to Alaska State Troopers. After the alleged shooting occurred, Edward Moses displayed his emotions on Facebook.
Bethel-based troopers responded Friday to the report of a child death in Tununak, a village of 327 on the northwest side of Nelson Island in the Bering Sea. They discovered Moses had barricaded himself inside a building.
Troopers reportedly convinced Moses to come out, and they were talking to the man later Friday about the death of his child, Kyle Moses.
Troopers' spokesperson Megan Peters was unable to immediately contact the post's sergeant to obtain more details Saturday.
Moses began airing his emotions on Facebook on Friday. "I should never be forgiven," he initially wrote. "I love my family."
Sometime later, he posted, "I think today is the last day of my life. I lived a bad one …" Friends offered words of encouragement but Moses responded with terse, matter-of-fact statements about not being able to reverse an unspecified wrong.
"Ay just calm down. Everybody makes mistakes man," Facebook friend Aat Aday wrote.
"The one I made … there's no going back …," Moses responded.
"Come on once its made it can be fixed," Aday said. "Everything can be fixed."
"Not what I did last night. It can never be fixed," Moses said.
Others offered condolences and advice on the same post, but Moses' responses remained short and unforgiving to himself. Then, his final Facebook post Friday night read, "Rest in peace my little son. Kyle felton inakak moses … I love you. Say hi to my mom while your up there."
According to online court records, charges filed Saturday indicate Moses is being charged with first-degree murder, as well as first-degree robbery. Moses was arraigned early Saturday morning at the Bethel Courthouse, during which a public defender was appointed to represent the 24-year-old.
A preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 24 in Bethel.
Moses pleaded no contest to a minor consuming alcohol charge in January 2005 in Anchorage. He later was convicted of crimes in Tununak in August 2007, including a second-degree weapons charge and third-degree theft. The 2007 conviction stems from an incident during which the then-18-year-old Moses and another village teenager, Clarence James, reportedly went through the small town firing a shotgun and threatening villagers, which sent Tununak into lockdown for about an hour. A village police officer and several others eventually wrestled the boys into submission.
Contact Jerzy Shedlock at jerzy(at)alaskadispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter @jerzyms