Alaska Man Charged in Shooting Death of Assistant District Attorney

An Alaska man accused of shooting to death a state assistant district attorney at a home in the Arctic community of Barrow earlier this week was arraigned on a first-degree murder charge on Wednesday, state police said.

Ronald James Fischer, 47, is charged with killing 48-year-old Brian Sullivan, an assistant district attorney serving the Barrow community and former Washington state lawmaker on Monday evening, Alaska State Troopers said in a statement.

Local police found Sullivan dead from an apparent gunshot wound in a house in Barrow, which is in the North Slope Borough at the thinly populated, northern edge of Alaska. Fischer, who had fled the scene, was found in a vehicle shortly after the incident and arrested, the state troopers said.

Fischer was formally charged with murder in the first degree at an arraignment on Wednesday in which bail was set at $500,000, the state police said.

Fischer shot Sullivan twice in the face with a 20-gauge shotgun within 10 feet from a couch on which Sullivan was sitting on Monday evening at the home of a woman, according to a criminal complaint which describes the circumstances of the killing.

On the night he was killed, Sullivan and the woman had been exercising together and planned to have dinner. After Sullivan arrived, he was in the living room while she was in a bedroom and then she heard a door close and heard Fisher say, "Who are you...?" and then heard a gunshot, according to the complaint.

Fisher had "no contact" release orders in several pending cases barring him from contact with the woman and to remain more than 100 feet from her residence, the complaint said.

If convicted, Fischer faces between 20 and 99 years in prison, local media reported.

Sullivan served in the Washington State Legislature representing the Tacoma area until January 2001, according to a state profile, and then moved to Alaska.

"Brian was a spectacular person and absolutely dedicated to the service of his community," the Alaska Republican Party, for which Sullivan served as a district chair, said in a statement on its Facebook page.

An attorney for Fischer could not be located for comment.

Fischer has more than 21 convictions from 1986 through 2011 and at the time of this offense was on bail release in three separate cases.