A man who was shot outside a Fairbanks bar early Saturday was taken to the hospital and died the following day, police said.
The 21-year-old man who was charged with assault in the case is accused of shooting the victim in the head during a fistfight, according to a criminal complaint filed against him.
Fairbanks Police Department officers around 1:30 a.m. Saturday responded to a report of a shooting outside the Big International Bar, according to an online statement from the department.
Upon arriving at the bar, which is located around downtown Fairbanks and is known as The Big I, officers found a man shot in the back of his head, according to a criminal complaint signed by Detective Robert Hall.
The victim was taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said. He’d been in critical condition Sunday, and then died Sunday afternoon, Fairbanks city spokeswoman Teal Soden said.
In the aftermath of the shooting, officers had located Shamar Rashied Terrill Snipes, 21, close to the scene near the Chena River carrying a gun, the complaint stated.
In an interview at police headquarters Saturday, Snipes told a detective and lieutenant that he and his friend were leaving the bar when his friend got into a fistfight with a person who was part of a larger group outside, according to the complaint. Snipes said that when he saw his friend being punched, he was afraid he would be hurt too and started shooting, the complaint stated. Snipes said he didn’t aim at anyone specific but fired multiple shots and hit one person, according to the complaint.
Snipes was charged with first-degree assault, according to online court records. He was arrested and remanded to the Fairbanks Correctional Center on Saturday, police said.
It wasn’t immediately clear Sunday evening whether additional charges may be filed in the wake of the victim’s death.