He was a 49-year-old Alaskan Native, male from Kotlik, Alaska. On the night of April 14, 2021, he and an older acquaintance spent hours drinking as they moved between each man's home. By the early morning of April 15, the pair were back at the acquaintance's house, where an argument turned physical. When the 49-year-old male refused to leave, the other man retrieved a shotgun and fired twice.
The 49-year-old male died at the scene in the small Lower Yukon River village as spring broke over the ice-laden coast. Harsh weather kept troopers from reaching Kotlik until the following day, but by then the quiet of the riverfront had already been broken by word of the killing.
Months later, investigators and prosecutors laid out the chain of events that morning. According to charging and later sentencing documents, the shooter—who told authorities he had been attacked in his home—claimed that the confrontation escalated after the 49-year-old male would not leave. The account did not prevent the case from moving forward: the narrative of drinking, the fight, and the two shotgun blasts hardened into the framework of the state's case as the community waited for resolution.
There was an arrest and a named suspect. On October 13, 2021, Alaska State Troopers arrested 54-year-old Ralph John Waska on an outstanding warrant stemming from the April shooting. He was booked on charges that included manslaughter and two counts of second-degree murder, with bail set at $250,000 pending arraignment. The arrest followed the initial scene response that had been delayed by weather, and it marked the public shift of the case from a village tragedy into a criminal prosecution.
The case ultimately ended with a conviction and a prison term. In May 2024, Waska pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide. A Bethel Superior Court judge sentenced him on May 24 to nine years, with three years suspended—six years to serve—citing both the need to protect the Kotlik community and Waska's prior felony record. The sentencing document also memorialized the core findings: the two men began drinking on April 14, continued at the victim's home, returned to Waska's house that evening, and the fatal shots were fired there in the early hours of April 15, 2021.
