A nine-year old boy in Pilot Station died on Friday after being shot in the chest with an air rifle by another nine-year-old boy. According to the Anchorage Daily News, the boys were arguing at the time that 4th grader Spencer Polty was killed. Clinic staff in the community of about 500 near Bethel tried unsuccessfully to administer CPR. State Troopers are not holding the other child in custody.
Anne Hillman is a behavioral health clinician working in rural Alaska. Before going back to school for her Masters of Social Work, she covered social justice issues for Alaska Public Media and ran the multimedia and arts project Mental Health Mosaics with Out North.