Mushers Attacked on Iditarod Trail

The Iditarod, the annual sled dog race commemorating the serum run from Nenana to Nome in 1925, has been under way for just under a week now. Some bizarre and disturbing events have just taken place along the trail. The Anchorage Daily News reports:

Iditarod officials said a snowmachine attack on two top Iditarod teams has left one dog dead and several injured.

Two Rivers musher Aliy Zirkle and Denali Park’s Jeff King reported a snowmachiner repeatedly attempted to harm their dog teams as they traveled to the Yukon River checkpoint of Nulato early Saturday morning. King’s team was struck, according to a press release from the Iditarod Trail Committee, resulting in the death of 3-year-old Nash and non-life threatening injuries to two others: 2-year-old Banjo and 3-year-old Crosby. A dog in Zirkle’s team also received a non-life threatening injury. The dog was not named in the release.

A video from Iditarod Insider shows Zirkle arriving in the checkpoint Saturday morning. She’s appears to be shaken when asked how she’s doing. Later in the video she wipes away tears while describing the incident.

“I’m really bad,” she told race judge Karen Ramstead. “Someone tried to kill me with a snowmachine.”

Both mushers have announced their intention to continue the race.

In interviews Jeff King has spoken of his belief that substance abuse, a grave problem in rural Alaska, was a factor in the attacks.

NPR continues the story:

A suspect has been identified, race officials say, and an investigation has begun.

“Regrettably, this incident very much alters the race of the two mushers competing for a win,” the Trail Committee writes. “However, both are going to continue on their way toward Nome.”

After a four-hour rest, Zirkle left Nulato — leaving one dog behind — in third place. King is still at the checkpoint as of 1 p.m. Eastern.

Emily says on Twitter that King explained, “I’m not gonna let this schmuck take any more of the fun away.

This is a breaking story. I’ll report on developments as they emerge.

Update

The ADN is reporting that they’ve found the person responsible for the attacks:

Arnold Demoski, 26, said in a phone interview Saturday that he struck the dog teams and was blacked out when it happened after drinking hard liquor in a nearby village. He said it was not an attack as the media has reported.

He apologized for the incident Saturday. He’s a longtime fan of the race who used to make signs welcoming the mushers. He said King was always his favorite.

“I don’t care if people know if I was drinking and driving,” he said. “I’m really glad (Zirkle) and (King) are OK and I really feel sorry for Nash.”

Demoski, a natural resources coordinator for the Nulato tribal council, said he came to after the collisions with his adrenaline pumping. He said he thinks he turned around to check on the teams, but was afraid to stop out of fear he would get in trouble for drinking and driving.

“As soon as I woke up this morning I heard about what happened,” he said. “I went to check my sno-go. The front panel was missing. I knew it was me right off bat. I called the (village public safety officer) right off, told him it was me. I told him I’d do whatever they want me to do. I’ll tell the troopers whatever they want to know. I feel really bad for what I did.”

I think it’s going to be hard for Mr. Demoski to make his case. The repeated attacks and the credibility of the King and Zirkle, whose stories are consistent with each other and in flat contradiction of Demoski’s account will make it quite difficult. At the very least he’s got attempted vehicular assault and felonious destruction of property. This guy’s like is probably over.