An Alaska State Trooper who fatally shot a Copper Center man Friday, has been identified as a six-year veteran of the force. Glennallen-based Trooper Kamau Leigh, shot Eric Hash at a Copper Center residence at about 3 a.m. Friday. Troopers say family members called, saying Hash had assaulted one person, and others were in fear of being hurt.
Troopers say Leigh fired as Hash advanced toward his patrol vehicle with a container of an “incapacitating, flammable liquid”.
Hash died after being medivaced to a hospital.
The Alaska Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting, after which the Office of Special Prosecution will make a determination on whether deadly force was justified.
Trooper Leigh was one of five officers involved in a September 2015 shooting in Fairbanks. Thirty three-year-old Vincent Perdue was killed, and 20-year-old Sarah Smoke was injured in the shooting which came at the end of a vehicle chase, during which Perdue and Smoke had fired on pursuing officers.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
