ANCHORAGE - Police are cautioning people from taking matters into their own hands after an early morning shooting in Mountain View left a man in critical condition.
Nineteen-year-old Talon Draper said he believed he was stopping an incidence of domestic violence when he shot his neighbor in the head, police said.
Police had already visited the apartment next to Draper’s earlier in the evening after several people called to report a man and woman fighting. The couple refused to let them inside, however, and police left without any charges or arrests.
The woman continued to scream for help after police were gone, so he grabbed his gun and went to his door, Draper said. He told police he saw a man running from the apartment complex and ordered him to stop. When the man reached down with his hands, Draper shot him in the head, he said.
Jermaine Twiley, 22, was critically wounded. Draper should never have gotten personally involved in a situation that was so serious, police said.
“The best thing people can do is call police immediately and report everything they see, everything they know,” said police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro. “Usually those kinds of calls are top priority on our list and we get there right away and respond accordingly.”
Draper cooperated with officers who arrested and charged him with first-degree assault, Castro said. At last word, Twiley was still in critical condition following surgery.