FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A 41-year-old man was shot and killed as he walked out of a grocery store in Alaska, and a suspect is in custody, police said Monday.
Joshua Eric Butcher, 41, who turned himself into police minutes after the shooting Sunday has been arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and was being held at the Fairbanks Correctional Center. Online court records don’t show any charges filed against Butcher yet, but police said they were working with the district attorney to determine if other charges will be filed.
It wasn’t immediately known if Butcher had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
Police have not identified a motive in the shooting, the department said in a statement.
Police received multiple calls reporting a shooting at the Safeway grocery store. Responding officers found the first victim, the 41-year-old man, unresponsive on the sidewalk.
Additional officers entered the store, where they found a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun on the floor inside the entrance. They also found the second victim, a 24-year-old man located behind the customer service desk who had been shot in the foot.
He described the shooter as a heavy-set man wearing a plaid shirt.
Both victims were transported to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, where the older man was pronounced dead. The man shot in the foot was treated and has since been released.
About 11 minutes after the shooting, police said they received a call from Butcher who said he was outside of the police department. He said he had been at Safeway, and officers could come outside and arrest him, according to the statement. He also said he would not answer questions without an attorney present.
Police said he matched the description of the shooter and had an empty gun holster and empty magazine holders on him.
While detectives processed the grocery store scene they “observed multiple firearm magazines and multiple spent and unspent 9mm rounds,” the statement says. Teal Sodden, a police spokesperson, declined to detail how many shots were fired.
Security camera footage shows a man approaching the entrance of the store and shooting the 41-year-old man in the stomach as he was leaving the store, the statement says. The video footage then shows the gunman continuing into the store with a firearm in his hand.
He walked behind the registers, heading north in the building but then turned around and headed out the same entrance he entered, the statement says. It wasn’t immediately clear if the second shooting was also captured on video or how long he was in the store.
