Crime

A potential tragedy was avoided in Kwethluk on Saturday, May 16. According to state troopers, a 19-year-old man, Brian Nicolai, broke into the village public safety building dressed for combat. He staged rifles inside, and activated the fire alert system. When village police officers responded, the officers say that Nicolai shot at them. But no one was hurt, largely thanks to an armed resident who got Nicolai to give up his weapon and lie on the ground. The incident has VPOs wondering if they themselves should carry firearms. 

A Kwethluk man broke into the village’s public safety building on May 15, staged rifles around the building, and shot at a village police officer, according to Alaska State Troopers. Nobody was injured during the incident. Troopers arrested Brian Nicolai, 19, who is charged with attempted murder and being held at the Yukon Kuskokwim Correctional Center.

Months after former Bethel Elementary School Principal Chris Carmichael was arrested, and later charged with sexual abuse of a minor, the Lower Kuskokwim School District adopted a new training curriculum to prevent sexual abuse in schools, according to the district’s attorney. It’s aimed at identifying sexual grooming early, and stopping it before it escalates. The training, new to LKSD, is new to Alaska as well. 

There are now at least four girls alleging in court that former Bethel Elementary School Principal Chris Carmichael abused them. In December 2019, Carmichael was arrested, and later charged with sexual abuse of a minor. Since then, attorneys for four of Carmichael’s former students have filed a lawsuit against the Lower Kuskokwim School District, where Carmichael worked, saying that the district failed to protect them.

For some parents, it was the gifts from the principal to young girls and their families that gave them pause. A few too many presents that cost a little too much money. Then began the late-night Facebook messages.

A Bethel man has been charged with giving an 11-year old girl alcohol and then raping her. On April 2, prosecutors charged 27-year-old Benjamin “Bam Bam” Anderson-Agimuk with two counts of furnishing alcohol to a person under 21, and one count of sexual assault of a minor with penetration of a victim under 13.