Two Coast Guard members shot dead at Kodiak base in Alaska

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Reuters

ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:22pm EDT

(Reuters) - Two members of the U.S. Coast Guard were found shot to death on Thursday at an air base on Kodiak Island in Alaska, the Coast Guard said.

The two were found dead at a communications facility at the Coast Guard Base Support Unit Kodiak, and authorities were looking for a potential suspect who might be at large, according to a Coast Guard statement.

The circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear, but the Coast Guard said the base, located about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage, was placed on "lockdown," as were nearby schools in the area.

(Reporting by Yereth Rosen; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston.)

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/12/us-usa-coastguard-shooting-idUSBRE83B1H220120412

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This is becoming not just a daily event, but a several times a day event.

Edit to clarify: there seems to be a workplace, school, or shopping mall shooting somewhere in the US every day now. It wasn't always like that. It seems to be escalating. Now, it seems to be happening more than once per day.

[xchrom]

1. There's more of this happening in Alaska? Nt

[Taverner]

2. Wow - you usually don't see Coast Guardspeople being killed like this...

[Nay]

13. Yeah, this is pretty dang weird.

[nykym]

3. Oh No

the Thing!

[Renew Deal]

4. Who would do something like that?

And why?

[freshwest]

5. '...several times a day event.' Where? In Alaska? Or government officials anywhere?

Hope this isn't from Palin's secessionist pals, or some teabagger, or organized crime. No details at the link.

But I wish it wasn't happening at all, who did it doesn't matter to their families and those trying to do a job to protect others.

I'd never heard of Coast Guard people being killed except perhaps battling smugglers at sea, maybe.

[99th_Monkey]

24. They're talking about in the US of A, and IMO the point was post-worthy. ~nt

[aquart]

6. WHAT?

Who the hell shoots Coast Guard???

[drm604]

7. I'm thinking that this is some mentally unstable person,

possibly a member of the Coast Guard.

[DFW]

22. I'm thinking.....

That there are WAY too many mentally unstable persons with guns back home in the US of A.

[frogmarch]

8. My first thought: drug runners

may have done it.

I hope that whoever did it is caught.

[drm604]

9. On Kodiak Island?

And they entered an air base and killed two members of the Coast Guard?

That doesn't sound right to me.

[PassingFair]

12. Sounds more like an X-Files episode.

I suspect aliens are involved.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. Could be.

Stranger things have happened. Sarah Palin's rise, for instance.

My inclination here is that this is someone who snapped for some reason, not an organized killing. We'll see.

[Javaman]

25. and at a communications facility yet. nt

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Becoming a daily event?

It's actually trending down. Have you considered that what you 'see becoming a daily event' maybe is the REPORTING of these things.

[KT2000]

11. This is horrible

The Weather Channel has a show about the AK Coast Guard. They do incredible work saving people - really skilled and
dedicated men and women.

[uppityperson]

14. Anchorage Daily News article, a bit more info...

http://www.adn.com/2012/04/12/2419864/2-dead-in-shooting-at-coast-guard.html

[Blue_In_AK]

15. Here is the coverage from the Anchorage Daily News

Last edited Thu Apr 12, 2012, 06:41 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.adn.com/2012/04/12/2419864/2-dead-in-shooting-at-coast-guard.html

U.S. Coast Guard officials say two Coast Guard members are dead in shootings at its communications station on Kodiak Island. Officials said Thursday it's unclear if the deaths are a double homicide or murder-suicide.

"It is possible that the suspect remains at large," Capt. Jesse Moore said in a written statement.
A school on Coast Guard property was placed on "lock-in" status, meaning students were not allowed to leave, at about 8:15 a.m., said Kodiak schools superintendent Stewart McDonald.

The district took similar measures at about five other area schools later in the day, he said. But at about 1 p.m., Alaska State Troopers told the district it was safe to release students from local classrooms.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/04/12/2419864/2-dead-in-shooting-at-coast-guard.html#storylink=cpy

[Blue_Tires]

17. murder-suicide? love triangle?

[AwareOne]

18. I was a radioman in the coast guard

stationed at this facility. It was a very high stress job, basically a 911 operator for a hugh area of Alaska. I could see someone snapping here from the pressure. Or it was an affair, two people working together when an angry husband shows up. It was a secure facility and you had to have a code to get in so it must have been someone they knew and they let them in or another coast guardsman who had the code.

[Blue_In_AK]

19. That's what I'm thinking, too.

Kodiak is very remote and does cover a huge territory. If Shell Oil ends up drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas this summer, Kodiak Coast Guard will be responsible for not only fishermen but spill response, even though the station is 1,000 miles away from the proposed drilling sites.

This is a sad story, no matter what happened.

[Marrah_G]

20. That is so sad....

Those guys up there are real hereos. I hope they catch whoever did it.

[JNelson6563]

21. Very sad. My heart breaks for their loved ones.

May the gods bless the Coasties. We here in MI have a very big appreciation for them.

Julie

[MADem]

23. Double Homicide, says the Coast Guard

Coast Guard Says Kodiak Shootings Were Double Homicide

By Ted Land, Chris Klint and The Associated Press
Channel 2 News
3:37 p.m. AKDT, April 12, 2012

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
Two Coast Guard members were fatally shot at Coast Guard Communications Station Kodiak in what officials said appeared to be a double homicide. They said they have yet to identify a suspect.

The victims were found at their work areas inside the station early Thursday by another Coast Guard member.

Spokesperson Sara Francis said that while the roughly 60 enlisted personnel and civilians working at the station had been accounted for, officials believe a third person was involved in the shooting.

...The names of the victims will not be released until next of kin have been informed. FBI agents and an evidence response team are headed to the scene from Anchorage because the shootings happened on federal property, and should arrive by Thursday afternoon.
...

http://www.ktuu.com/news/two-kodiak-shooting-deaths-under-investigation-coast-guard-says-041212,0,3033973.story

[Blue_In_AK]

26. Follow-up info

Kodiak residents impatient with lack of homicide info

http://www.adn.com/2012/04/13/2421222/fbi-seeks-shooter-in-coast-guard.html

Fear that a killer was on the loose spread among residents of Kodiak Island on Friday, with no suspect identified more than 24 hours after someone shot to death a Coast Guard officer and civilian employee at a communications station.

"We don't have stuff like that happen here," said Wendy Cavender, a bartender at the B&B bar in Kodiak, a city about eight miles from the Coast Guard base on Kodiak Island. "All anybody knows is that there is a shooter and that person might still be at large."

People in town weren't being told enough about what happened, and that was making residents jumpy, said Cavender, whose bar is popular with fishermen. Many were on the verge of arming themselves.

"I just think they need to release all the information they have so people don't get crazy and paranoid, which might lead to violence," Cavender said.

<snip>

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/04/13/2421222/fbi-seeks-shooter-in-coast-guard.html#storylink=cpy

[unionworks]

27. Commo facility?

Hate to say it but it could be espionage, in which case the public may never know what happened.