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UPDATE 11 a.m. Thursday:
Troopers on Thursday identified the man killed a day earlier as Michael Grimes, 45, of Fairbanks.
Original story
Alaska State Troopers shot and killed a man during an exchange of gunfire stemming from a vehicle pursuit near Healy on Wednesday, the agency said.
Troopers tried to stop the driver of a pickup on the Parks Highway just north of Healy shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday, they wrote in an online report. Troopers pursued the truck north toward Fairbanks, they said.
According to Alaska State Troopers, the driver fired “multiple times” at the troopers. Troopers said they and other assisting law enforcement fired back at the driver, striking him. They brought the vehicle to a stop using pursuit intervention tactics including spike strips, troopers said.
More gunfire was exchanged between the driver and law enforcement after the pickup came to a stop, troopers said, and the man was declared dead at the scene. A woman who was a passenger in the truck was not harmed, they said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the driver was struck multiple times by gunfire, or why troopers sought to stop him in the first place.
A section of the Parks Highway from Mile 250 to 257 was closed in both directions for several hours Wednesday afternoon while troopers documented the scene and removed vehicles from the road, troopers said. The highway was reopened shortly before 5 p.m., troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said in an email.
Troopers didn’t identify the man, saying his name would be released pending the notification of his family. His body was sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy, troopers said.
The officers who fired their weapons have been placed on administrative leave for 72 hours in accordance with Alaska Department of Public Safety policy, troopers said. Their names will be released after 72 hours.
The Alaska Bureau of Investigation will conduct an investigation of the shooting, troopers said.
This marks the second fatal shooting involving troopers this week. Early Monday morning, a trooper shot and killed a 21-year-old man who was seen brandishing an AK-style rifle outside a motel room in Tok, according to information from the Department of Public Safety.