AK island residents worry after C. Guard killings

[April 14, 2012]  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Law officers are reassuring residents of Alaska's Kodiak Island that they're not in immediate danger following the shooting deaths of two workers at a Coast Guard communications station, but no reports of any arrests have left people on edge.

Wendy Cavender, a bartender at the B&B bar in Kodiak, a city about eight miles from the Coast Guard base, said residents are getting jumpy because they have few details about what happened.

"I just think they need to release all the information they have so people don't get crazy and paranoid, which might lead to violence," Cavender said.

"All anybody knows is that there is a shooter and that person might still be at large," Cavender said.

The Coast Guard on Friday identified the two victims as Richard Belisle and Petty Officer 1st Class James Hopkins. Belisle, 51, lived in Kodiak and was a retired Coast Guard chief petty officer working at the base as a civilian employee. Hopkins, 41, was an electronics technician from Vergennes, Vt.

Another Coast Guard member found the victims Thursday morning shortly after the two would have arrived for work at the station, which monitors radio traffic from ships and planes.

FBI agents flew to Kodiak Island from Anchorage, about 250 miles away, and were treating the case as a double homicide.

"There is someone loose who murdered two people," said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez, but he said there was no indication other people on the island were in any immediate danger.

He said Friday night that no arrests had been made.

"We're really not commenting as far as do we have suspects," he told The Associated Press. "We're not going to comment on what we're doing there. It's an ongoing investigation."

When asked if the victims had been targeted, Gonzalez responded: "We're trying to determine the circumstances. (We're) still working to determine whether they were targeted or random."

Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters also said there was no indication of public danger.

"People should remain vigilant in being aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious activity to local law enforcement or state troopers," she said.

Troopers already posted to Kodiak were assisting with the case as needed, but no additional troopers have been sent from Anchorage to help, she said.

The roughly 60 enlisted personnel and civilians who work at the communications station have been accounted for, Coast Guard spokeswoman Sara Francis said. That's a small fraction of the estimated 4,000 Guardsmen, families and civilian employees at the Kodiak Island base, the service's largest in the nation.

People coming on base -- including known cab drivers bringing people there -- have to show photo identification to guards to gain access. Visitors are usually provided escorts while on base.

A Coast Guard official said the base remained on heightened security Friday. Military police were making more frequent drives around neighboring Peterson Elementary School and "keeping us on watch for the day," school secretary Cathy Wilson said.

There were numerous absences Friday at the school, but it was unclear how many were due to illness or the shootings, Wilson said.

Kodiak is the island's largest city, with about 13,000 residents in the area.

The Coast Guard 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.

The station is equipped with security cameras that cover the entire area, but it wasn't known if any evidence had been captured.

Capt. Jesse Moore, commanding officer of the base on Kodiak, said he wasn't aware of any threats or anything else that might have indicated problems at the station.

In their jobs with the Coast Guard, Belisle and Hopkins were involved with the installation, maintenance, repair and management of electronic equipment. Work they did with 11 other people last summer installing communication antennas on the remote Alaska island of Shemya was featured in a Coast Guard blog.

A woman who answered the phone at the Belisle home Friday identified herself as a family friend said the family was not commenting. Attempts to reach Hopkins' family were not immediately successful.

The Coast Guard has sent crisis response teams to Kodiak.

"As an organization with roots in saving lives and a focus on protecting people, this tragic event has shocked us all," Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo said in a statement. "My thoughts and prayers are with the victim's families, their loved ones, and the entire Kodiak community."

Moore was to meet Friday with base personnel to discuss the shootings, Petty Officer Charly Hengen said.

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

[Associated Press; By MARY PEMBERTON]

Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen in Anchorage and researcher Barbara Sambriski in New York contributed to this report.

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