A shooting that killed two adults and severely wounded two others has stunned a tiny Alaska Native whaling village above the Arctic Circle, where parents were told they could keep their children home from school Tuesday to hug them. A 16-year-old boy has been charged as an adult with two counts each of first-degree murder and attempted murder in the late Sunday shooting in Point Hope, a remote Inupiat community on Alaska's northwest coast, bordering the Chukchi Sea, the AP reports. The teen, Guy Nashookpuk, made his initial court appearance by telephone Tuesday. He spoke only to say "Yes ma'am" when asked questions by Magistrate Judge Colleen Baxter.
He was assigned a public defender, who entered not guilty pleas on his behalf. Baxter set bail at $1 million and scheduled a preliminary hearing for March 8. State law allows minors 16 and older to be tried in adult court on murder charges. North Slope Borough police found a man and woman dead and two other men wounded when officers responded to a shooting at a Point Hope home at 11:35pm Sunday, charging documents said. One witness told officers she saw the teen enter the home with a handgun and begin shooting. Others said they saw him flee on a four-wheeler. Nine minutes later, the teen's father escorted him to the police station and reported "that his son had told him that he did it," court documents said
The teen was interviewed with his parents present and admitted the shooting, the documents said. No motive was detailed. Point Hope, with a population of about 675, sits on a triangular spit of land that juts into the Chukchi Sea. The community, known as Tikigaq in Inupiaq, is laid out in a treeless grid around the Tikigaq School. The shooting prompted the closure of the the school on Monday. Attendance Tuesday was not required."It is totally optional if you'd rather keep your kids home to hold, hug, and explain the circumstance to them," North Slope Borough Mayor Josiah Patkotak said in a Facebook post.
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