WASILLA --A 19-year-old Wasilla resident described as suicidal and later discovered with a loaded semi-automatic rifle triggered a brief lockdown at Burchell High School in Wasilla on Monday afternoon, authorities say.
Alaska State Troopers initially arrested Christopher Fritzler on felony charges of third-degree assault and misconduct involving a weapon, although a Palmer magistrate dismissed the weapons charge Tuesday afternoon.
No one was hurt during the incident, but it left some at the school shaken and Fritzler's friends and family hoping he gets help.
Fritzler's mother said she called 911 Monday morning after a friend of her son's told her he might be suicidal and he wasn't at Valley Pathways alternative school near Palmer. But when a trooper went to the family house, no one was there.
Then Dionne Bliss talked to her son, she said after Tuesday's court hearing in Palmer. He calmed down and said he was feeling better and planned to go shooting at Hatcher Pass after swinging by Burchell High School -- another alternative school in Wasilla -- to see his girlfriend.
"The whole situation had completely changed," Bliss said.
Fritzler was then spotted in a parking lot of a church near Burchell. At 1:48 p.m., someone triggered a silent panic alarm at Burchell and the school was placed on lockdown, according to a sworn affidavit filed with charging documents in Palmer court by trooper Jason Crockett.
Two Wasilla police officers who found Fritzler sitting in his blue Ford Taurus at Wasilla Bible Church had him at gunpoint as Crockett arrived, he reported. Officers placed spike strips on either side of the car.
The church's parking lot overlooks the back of the high school and its bus loading area.
Fritzler disregarded several orders to keep his hands in sight and not reach into the back of the car, where he'd told the officers he had a Ruger semi-automatic rifle, Crockett reported. It was later discovered that the rifle had a 30-round magazine loaded with 21 rounds of ammunition.
When a Wasilla sergeant approached with a window punch tool, Fritzler grabbed the rifle and started bringing it into the front seat, according to the affidavit. The sergeant broke out the window and the officers deployed a Taser on Fritzler, momentarily disabling him. He was taken into custody.
"While being transported Fritzler said, 'I wasn't going to hurt you guys, you freaked me out and I didn't know what to do,'" the trooper reported.
During his first court appearance attended by his mother and five friends or relatives, Fritzler told Magistrate Craig Condie he understood the charges against him but wondered about them.
"I'm not sure why I was charged with assault due to I was trying to commit suicide," he told Condie from a closed-circuit video feet from Mat-Su Pretrial Facility.
The assault charges stem from his conduct involving the Wasilla police officers, the court documents show. Both told trooper Crockett they thought Fritzler was going to shoot them as he brought the Ruger into the front seat.
The presumptive sentencing range for the assault charges is zero to two years, Condie said.
In a hallway after the hearing, his mother said there was no indication Fritzler wanted to shoot anyone at the school and could have been trying to harm himself rather than go to jail when he grabbed the rifle.
He had a clean criminal record before Monday, according to juvenile justice and state court records.
Condie appointed a public defender and set Fritzler's bail at $10,000 cash/corporate and court-approved third-party custodian, with no access to deadly weapons including firearms. He dismissed the weapons charge, which related to weapons on school grounds, after combing through the affidavit and state statutes and finding no probable cause.
Prosecutor Candice Bales asked for a bail that reflected the school lockdown, "which would have caused a significant scare not only to the staff at the school but the students themselves."
The high school was placed on lockdown for 30 minutes, according to Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District spokeswoman Catherine Esary. School usually lets out at 2:15 p.m.
The incident was initially reported by a Burchell student, Esary said. Principal Adam Mokelke notified troopers and police. The lockdown was "part of our safety protocol," Esary said.