Updated on Wednesday, Oct 21 at 3:50 p.m.
ANCHORAGE – A Juneau man has been arrested for murder after 30-year-old Brandon Christopher Cook was found dead in a home Tuesday evening.
Christopher D. Strawn was arrested on a first-degree murder charge and taken to the Lemon Creek Correctional Center Wednesday, police said.
Tuesday around 10:30 p.m., the Juneau Police Department received a call about a disturbance at a home on the 2800 block of Mendenhall Loop Road.
“The caller stated a male shot another male while at the residence,” a release from JPD says. The caller was reportedly in the home when the shooting occurred.
About three minutes after the call, police arrived at the home — located in the Kodzoff Acres Mobile Home Park — and found a “severely injured male on the floor,” the statement says. The victim was later identified as Cook.
Capital City Fire and Rescue declared Cook, a Juneau resident, dead.
Police believe Cook and Strawn used to work together.
“They were acquaintances,” said JPD Chief Bryce Johnson. “They had been co-workers, previous co-workers.”
It’s not clear who lived in the home where the shooting took place, the chief said.
“It was not in the suspect’s home and I’m not sure if the victim lived there or not,” Johnson said. “So, it was a home that was having some work done to it and the victim was helping with that work.”
Strawn fled the scene after the shooting. He was detained around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Glacier View Trailer Park.
Strawn was identified as a suspect not long after officers arrived on scene, JPD said in an update Wednesday afternoon. He was placed under surveillance overnight while detectives investigated.
Although warrants were obtained early Wednesday, police said they delayed going after Strawn immediately over safety concerns about children walking to school and increased traffic.
At one point early Wednesday, police tried to track down someone else they mistakenly thought was Strawn.
Around 7 a.m., ”a person walked out of the area where JPD believed the suspect was located. This person vaguely matched the description of the suspect,” a JPD release says.
The person boarded a Capital Transit bus that was headed to the Nugget Mall area. Several buses were searched and JPD realized the person was not Strawn.
Before detaining Strawn, officers contacted people in nearby homes and gave them instructions on how to safely leave the area if they chose to evacuate. A Capital Transit bus was parked at a nearby bus stop so residents could stay away from the area.
JPD says an investigation is ongoing. The Tuesday death marks Juneau’s first murder investigation in years, the city’s police chief says.
–This is a developing story.
