Update Sunday, Nov. 25: The Alaska State Troopers released the name of the officer who shot and killed Cameron McCarthy, a 20-year-old Palmer man, on Thanksgiving Day.
Trooper Christopher Havens fired on McCarthy, troopers said in a statement Sunday. Troopers' names are routinely withheld for 72 hours after an officer-involved shooting.
Havens was also involved in the fatal 2017 shooting of Justin Quincy Smith, a 36-year-old man who had killed the officer’s police dog during a high-speed chase on the Parks Highway. Havens has been employed with the AST since 2012.
Original story: A 20-year-old man wielding a machete atop a Palmer building was later shot and killed by law enforcement and died Thursday night, authorities say.
Alaska State Troopers identified the man as Cameron McCarthy on Friday.
Palmer police called for help from troopers just before 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, according to an online troopers dispatch posted late Thursday. Police learned McCarthy was the subject of active arrest warrants and approached him at the Palmer train depot.
Before officers could make contact, however, McCarthy fled to the nearby Eagle Hotel, troopers said in an update Friday. He brandished a machete at officers in the hotel lobby and “was not cooperative.”
Troopers arrived as McCarthy barricaded himself in an empty second-floor room, according to the update. During talks with a trained negotiator and member of a crisis intervention team, he climbed out a window on the hotel sign. A fire engine was parked below him.
Law enforcement at the scene used “less-lethal force” including taser, pepper ball and bean bag rounds, troopers said. Then McCarthy jumped from the sign to the engine and ran to a nearby apartment complex.
Still carrying the machete, he tried to break into an occupied unit, troopers said. He was shot just before 6:30 p.m. An earlier dispatch put the location at the corner of Evergreen and South Dimond Street.
Officers immediately initiated lifesaving measures, troopers said. McCarthy was pronounced dead after he was loaded into an ambulance.
No troopers or Palmer police officers were injured.
The personnel who utilized lethal force are on a mandatory 72-hour administrative leave and will be identified after that time, troopers said.
McCarthy was wanted on several warrants including two for violating conditions of release and one on original misdemeanor charges of escape, assault, resisting arrest and theft, a state courts database shows.
This story will be updated as more information is available.