FPD detectives investigate death of 1-year-old-girl

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - Fairbanks Police Department (FPD) detectives are investigating the death of a 1-year-old girl.

Friday morning, the Fairbanks Emergency Communications Center received notification of a death of a child near 1600 Central Avenue, according to a FPD press release.

Fairbanks Police and Fairbanks Fire Department medics responded to the location and found a 1-year-old girl deceased at the residence.

“The child was observed to have multiple injuries to her body, consistent with being assaulted,” stated the press release. FPD detectives and the FPD crime scene investigator were called to the scene to investigate.

The mother of the child said that when she went in to wake up her daughter, she found her deceased. The mother said she was working the previous day and the child was in the care of her live-in boyfriend, 31-year-old Zackry Johnson.

The mother said that when she got home from work the previous evening Johnson told her that her daughter was asleep.

Johnson initially stated that the child had been “play fighting” with her 6-year-old sister.

“When confronted that the injuries observed on the child were inconsistent with injuries which would be caused by two young siblings rough-housing, Johnson provided different accounts of how the child received the injuries,” police stated in the release.

Johnson admitted to causing multiple injuries and using too much force as he was trying to get the child to take a nap so that he could play video games, according to the press release. Johnson admitted that his actions “likely” caused the death of the girl.

Johnson was arrested and booked at Fairbanks Correctional Center and charged with Murder in the Second Degree.

If anyone has additional information about this case, please contact FPD detectives at fpdinvestigations@fairbanks.us or call 907-450-6550.

If you suspect that a child is being abused, please contact law enforcement or call the Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-478-4444.