Alaska State Troopers shot and killed a man on the Kenai Peninsula after a standoff that began Thursday night and resulted in a trooper also being shot and injured, the agency said.
Troopers received a 911 call about a man “yelling and discharging a firearm” in the area of Crooked Creek Road in Kasilof just after 10 p.m. Thursday, the agency said in an online statement. Troopers later identified him as Mason Toloff, a 32-year-old Kasilof resident.
When the officers found Toloff, he threatened to shoot them, troopers said.
Troopers then activated a SWAT team, which arrived and began negotiation efforts with Toloff, according to the troopers' statement. Officers deployed a drone outside of the home, which was in a rural residential area of Kasilof, according to troopers spokesperson Austin McDaniel.
According to troopers, Toloff shot at the drone multiple times, and then shot a trooper in the leg. That trooper was taken to a Kenai Peninsula hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, troopers said.
Shortly after 2 a.m. Friday, Toloff “again pointed his shotgun at law enforcement officers,” at which point multiple members of the SWAT team shot at him, troopers said. He was declared dead at the scene.
In an email, McDaniel said the Alaska Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the incident, is still determining the number of officers who fired their weapons.
Toloff’s body will be sent to the State Medical Examiner for an autopsy, troopers said.
The Alaska Bureau of Investigation will conduct a criminal investigation into the use of lethal force by officers, which will be reviewed by the state Office of Special Prosecutions, troopers said. The officers who fired their weapons were placed on administrative leave for 72 hours, per department policy, and their names will be released at the conclusion of that leave.