Empire Archives is a series printed every Saturday featuring a short compilation of headline stories in the Juneau Empire from archived editions in 1984, 1994 and 2004.
This week in 1984, after being shot five times in a late-night gun battle with police Tuesday in Hoonah, a 29-year-old man, described as “very paranoid,” is in stable condition today as police investigate what led to the violent encounter. The man, Thomas C. Will, reportedly of Juneau, underwent five hours of surgery this morning at Bartlett Memorial Hospital after being struck by five bullets in a shootout at the Hoonah boat harbor. Three armed Hoonah Police officers, a Fish and Wildlife protection officer, and a Hoonah resident located Will at the boat harbor at 11 p.m. after a flood of worried residents phoned the local police department reporting a young man was wandering into local businesses armed with at least one gun, said Alaska State Troopers investigator Roger McCoy. “His behavior was enough to worry people and indicate something may have been wrong,” said McCoy, in a phone interview from Hoonah. Residents told troopers the man’s behavior worried them, and some feared a repeat of an incident like the one in Manley Hot Springs outside Fairbanks this spring where Michael A. Sitka is believed to have killed six residents, a nearby trapper and a trooper before he was shot to death. As the five-man squad arrived at the harbor around 11 p.m., Will reportedly began firing at them, but hit no one. The officers returned fire, hitting Will.
Original Story: “Man OK after gun battle at Hoonah harbor,” by Debbie Reinwand. 9/12/1984.
This week in 1994, the school board has expelled three students caught handling a weapon at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School, and police say they have tracked the weapon and six other stolen guns to a Juneau sporting goods store. Meanwhile, police have confiscated two more guns from the Juneau teenagers. A total of 11 guns, including a shotgun, a rifle and several handguns, have been collected by police from 11 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15 according to Police Capt. Mel Personett. School authorities found the .25-caliber semi-automatic handgun in the locker of one of the students, an eighth grader at Dzantik’i Heeni, two weeks ago. He was charged with possession of a gun on school property, a misdemeanor. After an executive session Tuesday night, the school board expelled the teen and two eighth-grade friends who admitted to playing with the gun at the middle school. The students are prohibited from attending any Juneau public school for the balance of the 1994-95 school year. However, because state law requires school attendance the students’ parents must enroll the youths in a private facility or the state’s correspondence school.
Original Story: “Students expelled,” by Annabel Lund. 9/14/1994.
This week in 2004, JoAnne Craig complains that the city’s Dog Task Force is not dog-friendly. “The dog task force focuses on the negative impacts of dogs,” said Craig, who owns two dogs. “They are closing the trails unnecessarily.” At the task force’s public hearing Thursday, Craig was one of the many dog owners who spoke against the task force’s draft recommendations to close some of Juneau’s 118 state and city trails to dogs. The city formed the 11-member task force in October of 2003. Earlier that year the city Parks and Recreation staff had proposed limiting dogs on the Rainforest Trail. But city staff members were so overwhelmed with comments about other dog-related issues that they left the Rainforest Trail as it is, with dogs on-leash, and created a task force to examine the broader dog-related issues. Whether dogs should be on leash or not allowed on trails is the task force’s focus. The task force recommends that dogs be on leash on most city-owned trails and off leash on some, such as Kaxdigoowu Heen Dei Hiking Trail (or Brotherhood Bridge) and Outer Point Loop Trail. The task force also suggests that certain areas, such as Auke Lake Trail and Fish Creek Park East Pond Dike Trail, should be dog-free.
Original Story: “Dog owners ask panel to retool proposals,” by I-Chun Che. 9/10/2004.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
