On the evening of April 2, 2014, in Homer, Alaska, 24-year-old Aaron Michael Rael-Catholic was involved in a violent roadside incident after a domestic-violence call brought an Alaska State Trooper to East End Road. The woman who called said she had been assaulted by her ex-boyfriend and had fled in her car; minutes later two vehicles collided near McLay Road and one rolled.

A trooper attempted to arrest Rael-Catholic and deployed pepper spray and a Taser, but a struggle continued on the ground. During the scuffle the trooper’s service pistol was taken and, according to the initial trooper dispatch and a civilian eyewitness, Rael-Catholic fatally shot himself with that weapon. The trooper, identified later as David G. Chaffin, was uninjured. The State Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death a single gunshot wound to the head; authorities described the wound as self-inflicted and no arrests were announced.

Did anyone in the Homer area witness the collision or the struggle and not yet speak with investigators?