Bethel Police Department

In separate incidents in 2023 captured on police body cameras, Bernard Mael and Nicholas Kerr claimed that Bethel police caused them serious harm. A criminal trial is pending for a former officer involved in both incidents.

Justine Paul was indicted on flawed evidence. A defense witness wrote that police should have treated no fewer than 12 people as suspects of “higher interest.” A decade after the killing, no one has been convicted in Whitman’s death.

Justine Paul was accused of killing his girlfriend, Eunice Whitman. In Alaska’s slow-motion criminal justice system, he was kept behind bars even as the evidence against him fell apart.

Kirkham joined the city in March as deputy director of public safety. He'll now oversee both the police and fire departments. The move comes a little more than two months after the former director left the position under circumstances that remain unclear.

A minor has been charged as an adult for allegedly shooting their family member, 57-year old Gene Chaney Jr., who was pronounced dead in the early morning hours of Nov. 1.

The parents of the 20-year-old whose body was found in Bethel in November 2023 under suspicious circumstances are suing for alleged negligence, discrimination, and emotional distress.

Naneng’s former boyfriend, 24-year-old Edward Atcherian, has been charged with second-degree murder for Naneng’s death and is currently being held at the Yukon Kuskokwim Correctional Center in Bethel.

Edward Atcherian, 24, faces second-degree murder charges after police officers found a deceased woman in a residence during a welfare check on the evening of Sunday, July 6.

According to Bethel police, an anonymous caller threatened violence against the Orutsararmiut Traditional Native Council (ONC) offices in the early afternoon hours of May 19 and claimed there was a bomb on the premises.

Forrest Jenkins, 68, was initially arrested for the hit and run incident in Nov. 2024, hours after responders found 48-year-old Jesse Frank on the side of Chief Eddie Hoffman Highway near the Bethel airport.