There was an officer involved in a fatal shooting in Barrow early Wednesday morning. According to the North Slope Borough Mayor’s office, the incident happened around 4:00 a.m. A North Slope Borough Police Officer was responding to a call for assistance when the shooting took place. The Mayor’s office identified the victim as Vincent Nageak III, the nephew of State Representative Ben Nageak (D-Barrow).
Nageak, age 36, was a lifetime resident of Barrow. Along with serving as fire chief, he worked for the Department of Corrections in Barrow for over 10 years.
In a statement, Representative Ben Nageak says the family “still [doesn’t] know all the facts.”
The Alaska Bureau of Investigation arrived on the scene in Barrow on Wednesday afternoon.
Laura Kraegel covers Unalaska and the Aleutian Islands for KUCB . Originally from Chicago, she first came to Alaska to work at KNOM, reporting on Nome and the Bering Strait Region. (laura@kucb.org / 907.581.6700)
Emily Russell is the voice of Alaska morning news as Alaska Public Media’s Morning News Host and Producer.
Originally from the Adirondacks in upstate New York, Emily moved to Alaska in 2012. She skied her way through three winters in Fairbanks, earning her Master’s degree in Northern Studies from UAF.
Emily’s career in radio started in Nome in 2015, reporting for KNOM on everything from subsistence whale harvests to housing shortages in Native villages. She then worked for KCAW in Sitka, finally seeing what all the fuss with Southeast, Alaska was all about.
Back on the road system, Emily is looking forward to driving her Subaru around the region to hike, hunt, fish and pick as many berries as possible. When she’s not talking into the mic in the morning, Emily can be found reporting from the peaks above Anchorage to the rivers around Southcentral.
