Crime & Courts

Skipper arrested for DUI after landing craft grounds near Kodiak

Kodiak police report that a "highly intoxicated" captain of a 152-foot landing craft grounded the vessel on Gull Island outside of Kodiak and was arrested on charges of DUI, reckless endangerment and assault.

The Kodiak Police Department reported receiving a 911 call at 8 p.m. Sunday from a 25-year-old crew member aboard the Polar Bear that the captain had run the vessel aground while intoxicated. Officers, with assistance from the Kodiak Harbor Master's office, arrived at the scene of the grounding and made contact with the captain of the vessel, identified as 50-year-old Edward Dyer.

"Dyer was found to be highly intoxicated not realizing the vessel was aground," Kodiak police wrote in a press release issued Tuesday.

Police and the crew member who initially reported the grounding dropped the vessel's anchors and transported Dyer back to land. Dyer was charged with driving under the influence, reckless endangerment and fourth-degree assault.

No fuel was reported to have escaped the grounded vessel. Steve Russell, state on-scene coordinator with the state Department of Environmental Conservation's Central Alaska Response Team, said poor weather had prevented a DEC responder from arriving at the scene of the grounding Tuesday. He said the vessel had been refloated Monday and returned to the Kodiak harbor at about 10 p.m.

Russell said the vessel was only a half-mile or so from the harbor when it grounded and was delivered to Kodiak "with no leakage of fuel."

Kodiak police would not offer further details into the case Tuesday morning.

Ben Anderson

Ben Anderson is a former writer and editor for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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