Crime & Courts

Man shot and killed in Western Alaska home, charges say

A 37-year-old man was fatally shot during an argument inside a Unalakleet home in mid-October, charges filed in the case said.

Alaska State Troopers said they arrested 32-year-old Unalakleet resident Allison Ivanoff on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and misconduct involving weapons.

A family member of the 37-year-old man killed in the shooting arrived at his house the night of Oct. 19 to borrow a phone charger and found him dead, according to an affidavit written by Trooper Peter Mlynarik. Ivanoff was also at the home and called the Unalakleet dispatch center less than 10 minutes later, it said.

A city council member responded to the scene because a trooper was not in Unalakleet at the time, the affidavit said.

A Troopers investigator responded to the area and interviewed Ivanoff, who said she was drinking with the man when they got into an argument that turned physical, according to the affidavit. When she got away from him, she told the investigator she grabbed the .17 caliber rifle and pulled the trigger, it said.

Ivanoff told troopers she thought the rifle wasn’t loaded and had only meant to scare the man, the affidavit said.

Ivanoff was in custody Tuesday afternoon at Anvil Mountain Correctional Center in Nome. Unalakleet is a community of about 800 residents on the Norton Sound coast roughly 150 miles southeast of Nome.

Tess Williams

Tess Williams is a reporter focusing on breaking news and public safety. Before joining the ADN in 2019, she was a reporter for the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota. Contact her at twilliams@adn.com.

ADVERTISEMENT