White/Caucasian male Ryker Mott, age 8, was at home with six brothers and sisters on July 26, 2022, in a quiet subdivision outside Fairbanks when a neighbor called in the sound of gunfire. Alaska State Troopers arrived to a devastating scene: four children dead of gunshot wounds inside the family residence, with three younger siblings—each under the age of seven—found alive but uninjured. The children's parents were away when the shots were fired.
Investigators determined that a 15-year-old brother shot three siblings, including Ryker, and then turned the gun on himself. The bodies were sent to the State Medical Examiner, and the state's Office of Children's Services was notified to assist the surviving children.
Authorities said the weapon used was a family gun; how it was accessed remained part of the inquiry. Troopers' timeline placed the first report of shots in the late afternoon, with one outlet citing a dispatch time of 4:17 p.m. to the home in the Skyridge Drive Subdivision. Amid the stillness that followed, responders identified the dead as three siblings—ages 5, 8, and 17—and the 15-year-old suspected shooter, all from the same family. The names of Ryker's older and younger siblings, Mercedes and Miura were memorialized publicly in the days that followed as the Fairbanks community lit candles and mourned.
No arrests were made. Investigators concluded the case as a murder-suicide committed by the 15-year-old brother, leaving no surviving suspect to charge. As with so many tragedies that move from siren to silence in a single afternoon, the question of motive remained unanswered in official statements, and troopers emphasized that details about the firearm and the family's prior contacts with law enforcement were still part of the ongoing review at the time. The result, for Ryker Mott, age 8, male, was a life abruptly cut short—one of four children who would not come home that night.
