Suspect still at large in Kodiak CG shootings - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Suspect still at large in Kodiak CG shootings

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — FBI agents who have arrived on an Alaska island were focused Friday on finding the person who shot and killed two Coast Guardsmen at a communications station, an FBI spokesman said.

“There is no evidence to suggest this is anything but a double homicide,” said the spokesman, Eric Gonzalez.

The bodies were found Thursday morning shortly after the two victims would have arrived for work at the Kodiak Island station, which monitors radio traffic from ships and planes. Their identities were expected to be released later Friday.

Another Coast Guard member found the victims at their work areas inside the station, spokeswoman Sara Francis said. FBI agents flew to Kodiak Island from Anchorage, about 250 miles away.

The station is composed of a main building and several other buildings. Francis declined to say exactly where the killings occurred, citing Coast Guard policy about discussing ongoing investigations. The Kodiak Daily Mirror newspaper said the bodies were found inside one of the station’s work buildings.

Authorities have not released the identity of any suspects.

A Coast Guard official said the base remained on heightened security Friday. There also was more security in place at an elementary school adjacent to the base.

Capt. Jesse Moore, commanding officer of the base on Kodiak, was to meet Friday with base personnel to discuss the shootings, said Petty Officer Chary Hengen.

“There is a sense of deep sadness here, not only in the town but at the Coast Guard base,” she said. “A lot of us are not related to each other but we treat each other like a family.”

The base is about eight miles from the island’s largest city, Kodiak. Officials called on the city’s 6,300 or so residents to remain calm and vigilant.

Moore said the shootings likely occurred sometime between 7 and 8 a.m. He said he wasn’t aware of any threats or anything else that might have indicated problems at the station.

The station is equipped with security cameras that cover the entire area, but it was not yet known if they captured any evidence, Moore said.

Francis said the rest of the roughly 60 enlisted personnel and civilians who work at the station have been accounted for.