A Kwethluk man has been sentenced to serve more than seven years in prison after he was arrested in 2020 and pleaded guilty to arming himself and threatening community members.
Twenty-five-year-old Bryan Nicolai pleaded guilty to five separate counts of felony assault relating to a May 2020 incident in which he pulled a community fire alarm located in Kwethluk’s public safety building and threatened community members with multiple rifles.
According to charging documents from the time, the village police officer (VPO) who was first to respond to the fire alarm found Nicolai on the porch of the building holding a rifle, which he told Alaska State Troopers that Nicolai attempted to fire at him.
Another community member who responded to the public safety building told troopers that he found Nicolai wearing police gear, and that Nicolai also attempted to fire a rifle at him. He told troopers that he was able to disarm Nicolai and detain him.
Shortly after the incident, Kwethluk’s administrative chief of public safety told KYUK that Nicolai had forced the locked door of the public safety building open, and had seemingly obtained the guns by breaking into an evidence locker containing rifles confiscated as evidence in other cases.
Nicholai was initially charged with attempted murder for the incident based on witness statements that Nicolai fired multiple shots at community members who responded. But over the course of court proceedings, those charges were ultimately reduced to four charges of first-degree attempted assault and one charge of third-degree assault.
On Aug. 14 in Bethel Superior Court, Judge Nathaniel Peters sentenced Nicolai to serve seven years and four months in prison, and to 10 years probation.
