From outside Trailer C16, a light grey single trailer with dark blue trim on C Street in Kodzoff Acres Mobile Home Park, it sounded like a firework.<\/p>\n
Tim Shockley, who lives two trailers over, went outside to investigate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t ever think it\u2019s a gunshot, you know?\u201d he said of residential neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
As neighbors registered what they heard, Juneau police received a 911 call from inside C16. A 26-year-old woman, Tiffany Marie Albertson, reported a man had just been shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was right there,\u201d she would later confide to a friend in a text.<\/p>\n
The call, received at 10:32 p.m. Tuesday, spurred a series of events \u2014 an emergency response, a search for the suspected shooter, a SWAT team executing warrants \u2014 that lasted throughout the evening and into the morning. The police action ended at 2 p.m. Wednesday when the suspected shooter \u2014 32-year-old Christopher Dean Strawn \u2014 was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of 30-year-old Brandon C. Cook.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a murder, yeah,\u201d Juneau Police Department Chief Bryce Johnson said, standing outside Strawn\u2019s house early Wednesday morning, rubbing his blue JPD jacket to keep warm in the chilly wind.<\/p>\n
Johnson was putting up yellow crime scene tape around Strawn\u2019s home, a trailer in Glacier View Trailer Park across from Duck Creek Market, a few blocks away from where the shooting occurred. A JPD SWAT team had just contacted Strawn there and took him into police custody. It was a \u201cpeaceful surrender,\u201d as Johnson put it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything OK?\u201d a neighbor asked, walking up the road in his pajamas.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is safe and fine, yes,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe\u2019re just going to be here for a while.\u201d Three detectives were searching Strawn\u2019s home in khaki-colored protective suits. The suits prevent the officers\u2019 DNA from contaminating the scene. JPD did not say whether they found the gun in question.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday night, police officers arrived at Kodzoff Acres approximately three minutes after the 911 call came in. Capital City Fire\/Rescue paramedics arrived less than a minute later.<\/p>\n
But Cook died instantly and the suspect had already fled.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur role was brief,\u201d CCFR Chief Richard Etheridge said. \u201cA paramedic confirmed (the) death at the request of JPD, and they cleared the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n
Etheridge said he couldn\u2019t comment on any injuries Cook sustained, saying that information has to be released from police. JPD did not release how many times Cook was shot or where he was hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scene was under their command, and they have an open investigation ongoing,\u201d the fire chief said.<\/p>\n
JPD spokeswoman Erann Kalwara said by phone, \u201cThat\u2019s not information we\u2019re going to be releasing, probably until after the autopsy.\u201d<\/p>\n
JPD is not speculating on what motivated the fatal shooting. The only ones who know are the shooter, and possibly the woman inside the trailer at the time of the shooting, Tiffany Albertson. Kalwara did not know if Albertson witnessed the shooting but confirmed a woman was inside the trailer when it happened.<\/p>\n
Albertson, who was interviewed at the JPD station before the suspect was captured, declined to comment when reached Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there a way I can talk to you about it later?\u201d she said over the phone. \u201cI\u2019m actually \u2014 (Cook\u2019s) mom is getting ready to call me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her employer called the Empire back a short while later.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s really, really distraught and she\u2019s just not prepared to talk to anybody about what went on,\u201d Albertson\u2019s coworker explained.<\/p>\n
Albertson is likely to be a key witness in the case against Strawn. Friends of hers said she and Cook were best friends and he was like a brother to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cRip my dear friend you are forever in our hearts i miss u so much,\u201d she commented on Facebook on an Empire story. She has since set up a GoFundMe page to cover Cook\u2019s funeral costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who knew brandon knew he always put others needs before his own and always tried his best to help anyone who needed it. And now i ask that we give to his family as i know he would do the same,\u201d Albertson wrote on the account. She ended the fundraising description by writing in all capital letters, \u201cJUSTICE WILL BE SERVED.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Empire was not successful in reaching Cook\u2019s family for comment. His Facebook page says he is from Wewoka, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n
While JPD is not saying what led up to the shooting, Kalwara confirmed the suspected shooter and the victim were acquaintances and at one point, coworkers. According to their respective Facebook pages, they both worked at the Safeway in Juneau: Cook as an assistant manager and Strawn as a janitor.<\/p>\n
When reached for comment, the Juneau Safeway referred the Empire to the corporate Safeway headquarters, then to the district manager, then to an administrative assistant, and eventually to a spokesperson in Washington who did not return phone messages by press time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know Safeway, they don\u2019t like you to even know that we exist,\u201d one Safeway official joked wryly.<\/p>\n
Employees at the Juneau location, meanwhile, were asked not to talk to the press.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe we\u2019re not able to make any comments about it right now,\u201d one employee said by phone.<\/p>\n
Albertson helped police quickly identify Strawn as the shooting suspect, but it took some time to find him. At one point, police thought he was at a residence in the 9900 block of Stephen Richards Memorial Drive, where he was known to hang out. Police had the place under surveillance throughout the night.<\/p>\n
In the morning, JPD thought they saw a man matching the suspect\u2019s description leaving the home to board a city bus headed to Nugget Mall. Police officers ended up searching several Capital Transit buses that happened to be at the mall at the same time, all to come up empty-handed.<\/p>\n
There was also a public safety concern. JPD waited to execute search warrants at Strawn\u2019s home until after children walking to school had left the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
The SWAT team entered the home, Unit 35 on Duck Creek Loop, and took Strawn into custody at 8:31 a.m. Wednesday. He was taken to the JPD station on Alaway Avenue, formally arrested at 2 p.m. and then transported to Lemon Creek Correctional Center. JPD\u2019s Kalwara did not say if he was interviewed by police while at the police station.<\/p>\n
Court records online do not indicate when Strawn will appear in court for a first-felony appearance, but court rules require a defendant to appear in court within 48 hours of being booked at LCCC.<\/p>\n
Charging court documents have not been filed in this case yet, but will likely be available today.<\/p>\n
According to the court database, Strawn does not have a prior felony in the state of Alaska. He has a prior misdemeanor conviction for resisting a Juneau police officer in 2010, and a woman twice (once in 2013 and again in 2014) took out a domestic violence protective order against him. He has another misdemeanor conviction for violating one of those orders.<\/p>\n
All the prosecutors with the Juneau District Attorney\u2019s Office are in Anchorage for a conference this week. The judges, likewise, are at a conference in Alyeska. Magistrate judges are filling in for the Juneau District and Superior Court judges while they are away.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors won\u2019t be back until Friday evening, but can participate in court hearings by phone.<\/p>\n
Assistant District Attorney Amy Paige told the Empire mid-day Wednesday \u2014 before JPD announced that an arrest in the case had been made \u2014 that they were not considering coming back to Juneau early.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, we\u2019re not,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause all that will happen, and this is just procedurally, the next step would be if he was charged, we would have an arraignment tomorrow and that would be the only progress over the next couple of days. So I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
She noted the DA\u2019s office has been consulting with JPD in this case as the investigation was ongoing.<\/p>\n
At Kodzoff Acres on Wednesday, a sky blue S.U.V. drove past Trailer C16, which neighbors say Albertson and her fianc\u00e9 just moved into two weeks ago. It was the trailer park\u2019s site manager. She hadn\u2019t yet heard the news.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mean in Juneau?\u201d she asked incredulously, when told police believe a murder took place in the trailer. \u201cReally?\u201d<\/p>\n
Juneau historically has seen low homicide rates. According to FBI statistics, the last recorded homicide in Juneau was 2010. Before that, there was one recorded homicide per year from 2007-2009. JPD reported two homicides to the FBI in 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny violent crime I think is an anomaly,\u201d the site manager said as she drove to work. \u201cI think Juneau is a safe place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or at emily.miller@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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