Anchorage Daily News

Sgt. Walter Blajeski had an arrest warrant in hand. And he had some questions for Donald Voorhis about a shooting two days earlier.

Still, the Talkeetna-based state trooper didn't expect to be met at the door of the run-down travel trailer by a gun barrel pointed at his chest.

"I could hear him talking, not making any sense," Blajeski testified Thursday at Voorhis' trial, now unfolding in Palmer Superior Court.

"When I banged on the door, the talking stopped and I heard him moving to the back of the trailer."

Blajeski said he pushed open the door and a blanket was covering the entry. That's when he got spooked.

"A rifle barrel came about a foot and a half from my chest. I thought he'd shoot so I started yelling, 'State troopers, don't shoot me!' "

Blajeski told jurors he bailed off the step and ran for cover.

Shielded by trees, the sergeant saw the barrel still sticking out, moving from side to side. "Like he was looking for me."

That's what started a three-day siege in a remote neighborhood near Talkeetna two years ago.

Eventually dozens of troopers set up a mini-headquarters in an attempt to arrest one man -- Donald Voorhis.

SHOTS FIRED

From the beginning, they tried to talk the wanted man from his 8- by-30-foot trailer on Rampart Loop, a skinny road maintained by the few inhabitants, eight miles from the nearest pavement. They brought in professional negotiators, flew in a forensic psychiatrist; even his brothers were there trying to talk Voorhis out and safely into custody.

When it became apparent they were dealing with a stubborn man, troopers went to other options: tear gas, high-pressure water, flash bombs, stinger grenades, snipers, and at one point they even tried to pull the trailer by its hitch to an open area. The only thing they didn't do was call in an airstrike.

During testimony Thursday afternoon, Cpl. Tony Wegrzyn said the amount of tear gas Voorhis endured was amazing.

At one point in his testimony, a juror passed a note to Superior Court Judge Eric Smith asking Wegrzyn if Voorhis was affected by the chemicals in the air.

"Negative."

Then Wegrzyn described one of the tools used to try to force Voorhis out.

It's a 37-millimeter, 8-inch-long canister fired from a rifle-like weapon.

"It's designed," Wegrzyn said, "to penetrate barricades in fortified structures." Meaning it can be fired through the walls of a building to disperse an irritating substance.

It also creates big holes. Wegrzyn testified that he didn't see it himself, but said other troopers saw Voorhis using the holes in the trailer to suck in fresh air.

Trooper Michael Wooten testified that he was the first to arrive when Blajeski called for backup and remained on the scene for most of the standoff. He said he eventually developed a rapport with Voorhis and at one point they made a deal that the 51-year-old would come out. But Voorhis reneged.

"I was about six feet from the door," Wooten told the trial jury Thursday. "We could apprehend him without incident."

It was decided they would create a distraction at the back of the trailer. Troopers started banging on the trailer; then they threw a flash bomb that creates a loud noise and a brilliant flash of light.

Two troopers entered the cluttered and smoky interior.

Wooten said he was halfway through the door when he heard shots.

"We're were taking gunfire almost immediately after we went in. The report was small-caliber. Then I heard return fire."

Outside, Blajeski was videotaping the event. He felt gravel flying up at his feet and realized bullets were going through the walls.

"I was getting shot at," he said. He retreated for cover, his camera now taking pictures of the ground.

Meanwhile, the troopers in the trailer came out, unable to breathe or see inside.

In the confusion and the short firefight, nobody was injured.

Then calm set in.

"It was very quiet," Wooten said. "There was a deafening silence after the shots. Nobody was hit; everybody was good. It probably lasted about 15 seconds, but it felt like a lifetime."

Then Voorhis shouted out, "Why did you shoot at me?"

That's when they knew he was still alive.

LIKE A HURRICANE

After that, a fire truck blasted the trailer with high-pressure water in an attempt to tear the roof off. When that failed, the troopers decided on one more tactic.

They went down the road about a half-mile and borrowed Johnny Yow's bulldozer. Yow is the man Voorhis had allegedly shot at two days earlier. It's the shooting Blajeski was investigating when everything else started.

With a Special Emergency Response Team member at the controls, the dozer tore off the front wall of the trailer.

"It was like a hurricane went off in there," Wegrzyn said.

Voorhis was found lying in the rubble, uninjured, and went peacefully to jail.

He's on trial for two counts of attempted murder, six counts of assault and one each of violating conditions of release, resisting arrest and reckless endangerment.

The trial resumes Monday morning.

At a glance

• WHO: Donald Voorhis, 51, of Talkeetna

• WHAT: Three-day standoff, Sept. 8-10, 2006

• WHERE: Rampart Loop, Talkeetna area

• CHARGES: 11 counts, including attempted murder and assault

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