HAPPY VALLEY, Alaska — A female driver exchanged gunfire with an Alaskan Wildlife Trooper and was shot in the torso after reportedly driving erratically on the Sterling Highway near Happy Valley Sunday evening, according to Alaska State Troopers.
AST spokesperson Megan Peters says an Alaska Wildlife Trooper spotted a vehicle driving erratically in the northbound lane around 6:15 p.m. Sunday and attempted to make a stop.
Peters says the woman, who remains unidentified because she hasn’t yet been arrested or charged with a crime, stopped briefly and fired at the trooper, who then returned fire.
The woman eventually stopped again near Mile 147 of the Sterling, where troopers found she had been shot.
Peters says a gun and several spent shell casings were found in the woman’s vehicle. Witnesses say the woman was firing from the vehicle, endangering some bystanders, but Peters says no law enforcement officers or bystanders were injured in the incident.
“The Trooper’s vehicle appears to have been stuck by at least one round fired from the female suspect,” Peters wrote in a Monday email on the incident. “It is believed the gunshot to the female suspect was from the trooper who returned fire at the suspect.”
