One of Two Barrow Children Injured in Assault Dies

February 06, 2012|By Chris Klint | Channel 2 News

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — One of two Barrow children who were severely assaulted Thursday nightand medevaced to Anchorage died Saturday, as North Slope Borough police arrested a man accused of illegally selling alcohol to a suspect in the death.

Officials say the 3-year-old assault victim was reported dead at the Alaska Native Medical Center at about 3 p.m. Saturday. There was no update on the condition of a 1-year-old child who was also medevaced after the assault.

North Slope Borough police officers responded Thursday to a report that the 3-year-old wasn’t breathing, at an apartment on the 200 block of Momeganna Street. Responding officers found the 3-year-old without breath or a pulse, and the 1-year-old in need of emergency medical attention.

Richard Tilden Jr., 28, was initially taken into custody at the apartment on two counts of second-degree domestic-violence assault, but police expect the district attorney’s office to file updated charges in the case.

A second arrest related to the case came Saturday, after officers served a search warrant on the 1300 block of Kongek Street and arrested Samisoni Kilifi Fotukava, 20. Investigators believe Fotukava illegally sold alcohol to Tilden, and he was taken into custody for lacking a license or permit to serve alcohol after the seizure of seven bottles of whiskey, 10 liters of wine and four cases of beer with an estimated street value of $1,450.

Fotukava is being held at the North Slope Borough Correctional Facility pending arraignment, although additional charges are expected to be filed.

“The North Slope Borough Police Department believes illegally purchased alcohol may have been a factor relating to the injuries suffered by both victims in the underlying case,” police wrote in a statement on the case Monday. “We would like to remind our citizens that the illegal sale and illegal possession of alcohol, also commonly referred to as ‘bootlegging,’ is not a victimless crime.”

The body of the 3-year-old victim in the assault case has been sent to the state medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.

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