A shooting death at the University of Alaska Fairbanks earlier this month has been ruled a suicide. Forty-eight-year-old student Scott Austin was found dead from a gun shot, next to his car in a campus parking lot on the morning of December 3rd. Austin’s death was initially suspected to be an accident, but UAF Police Chief Keith Mallard says an autopsy performed at the state medical examiner’s office, found Austin’s injury to be consistent with suicide.
“This was further collaborated with a note that was left in his residence,” Mallard said.
The Alaska Dispatch News reported earlier this month that Austin was a sophomore petroleum engineering student, who had attended UAF since the fall 2012 semester. Austin was an Air Force veteran, originally from New York.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
