Guard kills trespassing suspect at Alaska military facility
ANCHORAGE, Alaska June 18 2020– A 30-year-old civilian was shot and killed after brandishing a knife at a duty officer after attempting to enter a building on an Alaska military base used by Navy SEALs for cold weather training, officials said Monday.
Jayson Vinberg of Kodiak died in the shooting late Saturday at the Naval Special Warfare Detachment Kodiak on Kodiak Island, Naval Criminal Investigative Service spokesperson Jeff Houston said.
Vinberg entered the compound and attempted to get inside a building, Houston said.
“A Naval Special Warfare service member confronted the intruder, and events led to the service member using deadly force,” Houston said.
Alaska State Troopers said a guard saw a man trespassing at the installation and tapping on the windows of a watch building with a knife.
The guard told the man to leave. The guard then left his secure building to make sure the man left, troopers said.
It was then that troopers said the man walked toward the guard with the knife and failed to obey the guard’s repeated commands to stop. The duty officer shot the man, who was declared dead by responding medics, troopers said.
Houston and Lt. Matthew Stroup, a Naval Special Warfare Command spokesman, said the the service member was in good condition and receiving support from his command leadership. Stroup declined to say whether the service member was injured or hospitalized.
“There is no known threat to the community at this time,” Houston said, adding NCIS will not release additional information during the investigative process.
Attempts to reach Vinberg’s family were not immediately successful.
Since the fatal shooting occurred on a Navy base, NCIS is leading the investigation, working with Alaska State Troopers and the Coast Guard Investigative Service, he said.
Troopers say the duty officer’s name won’t be released until after the investigation is complete and after consultation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage.
