An employee at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Administrative Building was detained on Wednesday when police were notified that he had brought a concealed handgun onto the premises. The employee, Lucas Thein, 35 of Soldotna, was later arrested for an incident unrelated to the concealed weapon.
A statement on the incident provided by the Soldotna Police Department said, “Lucas Thein, had entered the building with a concealed handgun. There was concern over recent activity involving Lucas’ behavior. The concern spawned a multi-agency law enforcement response.”
KSRM contacted Borough administration for more information on Thein’s behavior, but were unable to reach anyone for comment.
According to Soldotna Police Chief, Gene Meek, his department received a call from another employee at the borough building notifying SPD that Thein was in possession of the handgun, a Ruger 9mm, and was also displaying some concerning behaviors. At that time, Meek himself, along with an assisting Alaska Wildlife Trooper, detained Thein in handcuffs to perform a more thorough investigation.
In addition to the concerning behaviors reported by the borough building employee, Meek said the handgun was carried in an unsafe manner. According to Chief Meek, Thein’s pistol was visible, protruding from the pocket of his hoodie.
“We had suspicion of criminal activity, which is what we need to detain people,” said Meek. “Plus, the handgun was visible in a hoodie pocket and because of the behaviors that were described by the borough, we just detained them, which is [to] take them into custody, securing the weapon for safety and that’s where the investigation into his activities took place.”
Following the investigation, SPD determined Thein was not in violation of any Alaska state law.
Alaska State Troopers on the scene, however, identified Thein as the subject of a separate active, domestic violence investigation, and determined that it would be best to take him into custody.
An investigation is still ongoing into Thein’s domestic violence charges, however, Captain Mike Zweifel, Commander for the Alaska State Trooper A Detachment said the events which led to Thein’s arrest on the 20th stemmed from a call troopers received on the 16th. At that time, the caller reported acts of domestic violence committed by Thein.
“We got a call on December 16th about a domestic violence situation where someone was just calling not to report the crime to us, but ask us some basic advice on how to get a protective order,” said Cpt. Zweifel in a call to KSRM. “During that phone call on the 16th, we learned that some domestic violence crimes had occurred earlier and that was kind of prompting them to want to get the protective order. We began the investigation on the 16th and then when we ran into Mr. Thein at the borough building when we helped Soldotna PD with [their investigation]. That’s when we arrested [Thein] for the domestic violence crimes that we had been investigating.”
According to court documents, Thein was arrested for three counts of assault in the fourth degree.
