January 3, 2024

Ava White, News Reporter

A Koyuk man is charged with fatally shooting his father Saturday in the village of roughly 300 people. According to a charging document, the defendant told Alaska State Troopers he’d been smoking marijuana and blacked out before the shooting.

According to an online trooper dispatch, 35-year-old Franklin Adams called emergency dispatchers at about 5:45 p.m. Dec. 30th to say that he had shot and killed his father, 74-year-old Dennis Adams in their home.

Trooper spokesperson, Austin McDaniel, said nobody else was in the home at the time.

Two troopers arrived in Koyuk, about 130 miles east of Nome, shortly after. 

The charging document against Franklin said he told them he had been assaulted – by whom is unclear – then smoked some marijuana, which he thought must have been laced with some other drug, because it caused him to black out and fall on the floor.

According to the charges, when he woke up, Franklin said that the floor and his tooth were both cracked, and his lip was hurt.

Franklin told the troopers he grabbed a Remington 1100 semi-automatic shotgun from his bedroom.

Franklin went into the living room where Dennis was, according to the charges, and told troopers “When Dennis turned towards him, he saw in Dennis’ eyes that he wasn’t Dennis.” Franklin told the troopers he fired a shot at Dennis but missed. 

The charges say Franklin told troopers he loaded another shell and shot Dennis in the chest, causing him to fall to the floor, in Franklin’s bedroom. Franklin said he couldn’t get a third shell in the chamber, so he grabbed a different shotgun from the living room, a Remington 870, along with a photo of his deceased brother, and went back to his bedroom.

That’s when Franklin dialed 911, saying he “wasn’t feeling himself.”

Franklin is now charged with first-degree murder.

Court records showed Franklin Adams was held at Anvil Mountain Correctional Center in Nome as of Wednesday (1/3). His next court appearance is set for Jan. 11.

_{Photo at top: Winter temperatures paint pastel skies in Koyuk. (KNOM file)}