An hours-long standoff in Barrow ended peacefully Tuesday night after North Slope Borough police took a reportedly suicidal, unidentified man into custody. And while the dangerous situation unfolded, police say a 13-year-old was accidentally shot and killed just down the street.
Police in Barrow, the northernmost community in the U.S., are offering few details about the prolonged standoff that prompted local schools into lockdown out of caution before they fully understood the situation.
According to a North Slope Borough Police Department press release, a report of a suicidal man came in at 2:45 in the afternoon. The man was reportedly holed up at 5273 Karluk Street, a building near the Kiita Learning Community alternative school.
Kiita was the only school from which buses hadn't taken students home yet, North Slope Borough School District Superintendent Peggy Cowan said on Tuesday. Other schools in the community also locked down and went on high alert, though most students had left by that time.
"Officers responded to the location and established contact with the individual, an adult male, who was threatening to shoot himself," the release says.
The police didn't dub the incident as a standoff in the release, but if Facebook posts by Utqiagvik Presbyterian Church are any indication, the Arctic community of about 4,500 residents viewed it as such. A police department secretary said Tuesday night there were no officers to offer comment as all were responding to a situation, though she declined to say what the situation was.
The release says the man was taken into protective custody after six hours, unharmed.
Kiita students were able to exit the school after about two hours in lockdown. They were instructed to walk in the opposite direction of the nearby police activity.
Police are continuing to investigate the standoff. Calls to the Barrow police department were not returned Wednesday.
As Kiita raised its defenses, students sent out messages on social media expressing frustration and fear. There were also rumors swirling that someone had died.
The death turned out to be unrelated but also happened on Karluk Street, just one block west from the standoff. In a separate press release, police say they found out about the death of a 13-year-old boy at 3:40 p.m. He died from a gunshot wound to the head, the release says.
A preliminary investigation indicates the victim may have been accidentally shot by another boy. Police wrote the death investigation is ongoing.
The Presbyterian church's pastor Duke Morrow encouraged Barrow residents to come pray at the church on Tuesday, while the standoff was ongoing. Marrow's Facebook post was abrupt, but people quickly showed up.
"It was a good community turnout," Morrow said when reached by phone Wednesday.
When information about the two adjacent incidents were unfolding throughout the community, there was a strong sense of confusion.
"People linked the two together and thought they were related," Morrow said.
Now, he said he believes the residents are troubled with mixed emotions. There is a feeling of joy that the standoff ended peacefully, but a deep sadness over the boy's death. And the death hits hard because the boy was well-known, not because he was a troublemaker -- "He was always around," Morrow said.
Cowan, the district's superintendent, said students at elementary, middle and high school levels knew the victim. The tragedy definitely affects the students, she said, as well as teachers.
The district activated its crisis management plan immediately after hearing about the death. A crisis team -- consisting of health officials, school psychologists and others -- went to the victim's school at the beginning of the school day and stayed throughout. Teachers announced to students what had happened and informed them of the available supports.
Contact Jerzy Shedlock at jerzy(at)alaskadispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter @jerzyms.