This article has been updated to correct the spelling of the wounded Wasilla officer. He is Adam Gebert, not Gerbert.
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An Anchorage man who shot and injured a Wasilla police officer Thursday nearly struck a school bus before the confrontation, according to charges.
Patrick E. Marrs II, 57, is facing charges including attempted murder for shooting Officer Adam Gebert in the hand during what troopers described as a “volley of gunfire” outside a convenience store.
Just before 5 p.m., Gebert noticed a silver Pontiac Grand Am that had a license plate registered to another vehicle, according to a sworn affidavit filed by Trooper Jason Fieser. Gebert tried to pull over the vehicle, which Marrs was driving, but Marrs sped away, hitting speeds of 75 mph on an icy stretch of Bogard Road, the charges said.
Marrs drove through a red light, nearly striking a car, according to the affidavit. He then drove in the wrong lane of a blind curve, nearly hitting a school bus head-on, the affidavit said.
Marrs pulled into the Valley Country Store parking lot and his vehicle went into the ditch as Gebert attempted to pin the vehicle in the parking lot, according to the affidavit.
Gebert approached Marrs’ vehicle and tried to open the front passenger door, where a woman was sitting, the charges said. Marrs fired at Gebert, shooting him in the hand with a pistol, the charges said.
Gebert returned fire and the woman was shot just below her right elbow, the charges said. It was not clear whose gunfire injured her.
Gebert moved behind the car and both Marrs and the woman got out and fled, troopers said. The woman was located nearby and brought to the hospital. She told investigators that once the pursuit started, she “had a feeling it was going to end in a shooting,” the affidavit said.
Marrs was located about an hour later roughly a mile from the store, troopers said. He did not have the pistol with him when he was located and officers were not able to find it, the charges said.
Gebert underwent surgery on his hand and was also wounded by glass shrapnel in his eye, the affidavit said.
Marrs is facing a charge of first-degree attempted murder; first- and second-degree assault; misconduct involving a weapon; failure to stop at the direction of an officer and providing false information. He was jailed at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.
Marrs has a criminal history dating back to 1984, troopers said. He had several outstanding warrants against him, that included several stemming from 2011 and 2018 felony burglary cases from Anchorage, according to a state courts database.