Fairbanks Safeway shooter sentenced to 85 years

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU) - In a case prosecutors characterize as “one of, if not the most, shocking cases in Fairbanks’ history,” the man convicted of the 2021 deadly shooting at the west Fairbanks Safeway was sentenced to 85 years in prison.

Joshua Butcher, 44, shot and killed Harley Titus, 41, outside the store entrance before entering the store and shooting more rounds, injuring employee Chris Sanderson on Nov. 7, 2021.

“[He] went there with the specific intention of killing someone, he didn’t care who,” Superior Court Judge Patricia Haines said during Tuesday’s hearing, according to a state news release. “The danger that a public shooting poses to society does not diminish with age.”

Fairbanks District Attorney Joe Dallaire called Butcher’s conduct on the night of the shooting “terrifying.”

Ten minutes after the shooting, Butcher turned himself into the Fairbanks Police Department at their station.

“A lot of hard work and dedication went into that case,” Fairbanks Police Chief Ron Dupee said.

“Anytime that we go to a scene like that’s going to be pretty chaotic, right? You have somebody that’s walking around with a gun firing off. There’s [an] unresponsive individual...in the parking lot. It’s unknown where the suspect was at the time that the officers arrived,” Dupee said.

The District Attorney’s office asked for a sentence of 109 years, but Dallaire along with Chief Dupee said they are pleased with the outcome.

In March 2024, he pled guilty to Murder in the First Degree, as well as two counts of Assault in the Third Degree.

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