White/Caucasian male Welton Daniel Albers, 25, died on February 7, 2016, in Kodiak, Alaska, after gunfire aboard the fishing vessel Katherine as it lay moored in Saint Herman Harbor before dawn. Police were dispatched at about 12:40 a.m. to reports of a man bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds; he was transported to Kodiak Island Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Public accounts and memorial records identify him as a 25-year-old from Houston, Texas, who was working in Alaska at the time of the shooting and was aboard the Katherine when the violence erupted.
Within hours, officers detained a 28-year-old Washington state fisherman, Matthew Bowe, who contacted authorities and said he had shot Albers in self-defense. He was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder. Early reports and charging-document summaries described a volley of rifle fire—media accounts referencing those documents said an assault-style rifle was used—on the deck of the moored vessel. The Kodiak Police Department and statewide outlets publicly confirmed the arrest, while noting the investigation's focus on what unfolded aboard the Katherine at Saint Herman Harbor.
As the case moved through the courts, later public updates indicated a resolution: nearly five years after the harbor shooting, Matthew Taylor Bowe pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Welton Daniel Albers aboard the fishing vessel in Saint Herman Harbor, bringing the long-running case to a close.
