White/Caucasian male Brian Joseph Sullivan, 48, an assistant district attorney in Alaska and former Washington state lawmaker, was shot and killed on December 8, 2014, in Barrow, now known as Utqiagvik. Local authorities treated the death as a homicide. Obituaries and state announcements confirmed the date and place of death and identified him as Brian Joseph Sullivan, age 48.
Investigators determined Sullivan was killed inside the home of a woman he had begun dating.
Police said he was unarmed, seated on a couch, when he was shot twice with a 20-gauge shotgun. The killing stunned the tight-knit Arctic community, where Sullivan had served as the local prosecutor, and news outlets noted the rarity of a state prosecutor being targeted in Alaska's memory.
Within days, Barrow police identified and arrested a suspect: 47-year-old Ronald Fischer, a convicted felon with a history of assaulting women. Authorities described a jealous-rage motive tied to Fischer's past relationship with the woman in whose home the shooting occurred. On December 26, 2014, a Nome grand jury indicted Fischer for first-degree murder in Sullivan's death.
The case proceeded to trial, and on October 26, 2017, a jury found Fischer guilty of all counts, including first-degree murder. On April 6, 2018, Alaska Superior Court Judge Gregory Miller imposed a composite sentence of 105 years in prison. Later summaries and appellate records reaffirmed the conviction and sentence, closing the criminal chapter that began the night Brian Sullivan, 48, was killed in Barrow.
