Family, friends of Steven Kissack united from afar at memorial gathering after his death

When Steven Kissack’s siblings in Florida heard he’d been fatally shot by police they naturally were shocked and angry about the death of a brother who’d been increasingly out of touch while living on the streets of Juneau for several years.

Then a different kind of shock occurred as a deluge of condolences, prayers, tributes and media requests almost immediately flooded in.

On Sunday, 41 days after the shooting, the impact of those reactions hit with full force and many tears as three of his siblings — his sister Dawn, and brothers Jason and Monty — gathered with more than 100 people and Steven’s longtime canine companion Juno downtown in Marine Park to pay tribute to a person who affected more lives than he ever likely imagined.

“The community’s reaction is beautifully overwhelming,” Dawn said during an interview with her and her brothers Friday. “It’s the love and support, and just kindness from the community has been really overwhelming, but it’s been very helpful for me in the healing process. Just knowing how much my brother was loved and respected, even as a homeless man.”

Sunday’s gathering occurred during a five-day visit by Steven’s siblings. The visit offered them and people in Juneau a chance to learn more from each other about a person who struggled being “a little different” growing up in Florida, found work and a place to call home after moving to Juneau a decade ago, then suffered through a series of setbacks that led to his decline and death.

Steven’s family, along with many people in Juneau who knew him, also are seeking answers about the July 15 police confrontation where he was shot while wielding a knife. Juneau Police Department officials have stated Kissack was approached as a suspect in an assault that occurred the day before, was aggressive during a standoff lasting more than 10 minutes during which he was shot with non-lethal projectiles, and was charging toward an officer with the knife when he was fatally shot.

The incident is being investigated by the Alaska Department of Law, which is standard procedure for all police-involved shootings.

“We were hoping we would get more information by the time we got here,” Jason said, adding he has talked with the state’s Office of Special Prosecutions about the investigation process. He said while the family is considering legal action against the JPD and Alaska State Troopers, whose officers were involved in the shooting, any such filing will need to take place after the investigation is concluded and evidence such as police bodycams is available.

But regardless of the outcome of the investigation and any further legal action, Steven’s siblings say the confrontation with police could have been handled differently.

“I don’t think that they came and approached the situation the right way to begin with,” Dawn said. “I think if it was such a violent crime that my brother had did how could they have not have found him the day before? Everybody said that they could always go come downtown and find Steven somewhere.”

During those final minutes, being hit by projectiles and with officers on all sides yelling commands at him, “I think he was just very confused and angry,” she said.

“I think that the way that they just came up on him, they just bum-rushed him and he was caught off guard,” she said. “He should have been told why they were there and why they were questioning him. And I think that it just escalated so quickly that he wasn’t really given a choice to comply.”

Growing up ‘a little different’ in Florida, finding a home in Juneau

Steven was born in Florida and grew up in a family that “never had a whole lot of money,” with his parents purchasing and operating a deli, Dawn said. As a kid he didn’t always fit in at school.

“He was either always getting picked on, getting in trouble in school like that,” she said. “He was a little defiant with authority, especially when they took their authority and abused their power, and stuff like that. He didn’t like that. He didn’t like being told what to do.”

One thing Steven did have was a strong interest in reading, Dawn said.

“He liked to read about almost anything — history, animals, how things were made — just almost everything intrigued him,” Dawn said. “And I think that was one of the things is that you would start talking about something and he would go into it very deep, and then a lot of people didn’t really know how to take that, or might not agree with him on his thoughts, and then they would get into it. And he was a debater, he would like to debate about a lot of things.”

Steven and his father shared a dream of moving to Alaska, according to his siblings. That became a reality about 10 years ago when Steven moved to Juneau from Texas at about the time the siblings inherited “a little bit of money” following the deaths of their mother and grandmother within a short time of each other, Dawn said.

“That’s what he used to get here, and to get his boat and his phone and everything,” she said.

At first Steven’s search for adventure seemed to be fulfilled, Jason said.

“He told me when he first got here he was living in a tent on the side of a mountain and an eagle dropped a fish out of its claws,” he said. “It fell on the ground, he picked it up and cooked it, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever.”

Dawn said that even after Steven started living on the streets she would hear such stories during the rare times she heard from him.

“He told me that one morning he woke up with a bear in his face downtown while sleeping up against a building,” she said.

Steven began living aboard a houseboat soon after his arrival, according to his siblings. He initially worked as a fish processor, then started dating a woman involved with a construction-related business where he worked as a handyman.

“When he first moved here we heard from him more often,” Jason said.

As with many people working in Juneau, it was easier for Steven to make a living during the warmer months than the colder ones, Jason said.

“He had said it’s rough up here because in the wintertime there’s really not a good way to make a steady income doing the stuff he was good at,” he said. “I said ‘Have you thought about maybe in the wintertime leaving?’ He’s like ‘Nah, I don’t know if I want to do that.’ I’m like ‘OK, well then you’ve got to realize it’s going to be tough.’”

The struggles and isolation from family begin

Steven called about five or six years ago to say he lost his houseboat because he couldn’t afford it, Jason said.

“He just couldn’t pay the bills and he was just kind of living on the streets,” he said, adding it appeared his brother was still doing “side jobs” at that point.

There may have been reasons besides scarcity of work —including drug use — that contributed to Steven’s struggles, Dawn said. But she said one reason he ran out of money may have been a trait that friends in Juneau also living on the streets have referred to after his death.

“I don’t know for sure, but, I do know that him losing everything also could have been due to the fact that he would give his last dime to a person who needed it instead of keeping it himself because he was a very selfless person,” she said. “He would give the shirt off of his back in freezing cold weather to somebody else who needed that. So I think when he did have money I think he just said ‘Here, here, here, here’ to everybody, and just kept giving and giving and giving until he didn’t have anything.”

That period of time is also when Steven grew increasingly out of touch with his family, siblings said.

“There was several years where we didn’t hear from him for the most part,” Dawn said. “He used to always try to call me for Mother’s Day after our mother passed away. He would try to at least call me for Mother’s Day and tell me Happy Mother’s Day.”

Jason said at one point he called JPD to do a welfare check, with the person answering the phone saying she knew Steven was homeless and might be at the Glory Hall. When Jason called the Glory Hall a staff member at the homeless shelter told Jason they didn’t know where his brother was at the time, but would pass on the message family members were trying to reach him.

When his siblings did occasionally contact Steven, it was always with an invitation to return home, Dawn said.

“We always asked him to come back,” she said. “He refused to come back. He loved it here.”

Steven — as well as his father — suffered from asthma that seemed less problematic in Juneau’s cold weather, Dawn said. Also, “he just wanted to get away from Florida.”

Jason said family members talked about “taking a cruise up here and just surprising him,” but the cost and other practical concerns prevented it.

Steven’s first significant trouble with police occurred in 2021 when he was accused of assaulting a police officer, but a list of other offenses in the Alaska Court System’s online database are mostly for minor violations related to illegal camping. The situation changed, however, beginning in February of this year when he began acting more aggressively toward officers, according to a JPD report.

During several conversations with the Empire earlier this year — including just before his birthday on July 6, only days before his death — Steven said he was hoping to move out of state, but his legal problems were preventing it. His siblings said he was talking about moving to Oregon, where the weather would still be cool enough to suit him.

On the streets of Juneau with Juno

Steven’s constant companion during his years on Juneau’s streets was a Siberian Husky/Alaskan Malamute mix named Juno. During a gathering with friends last Christmas Eve, Steven said he adopted the now seven-year-old dog as a pup when she was the runt of the litter.

His siblings said he always had a love of animals, especially dogs.

“My brother was not a danger to anybody or anything that I’d ever seen except for lizards — and that was to catch lizards so that my dog could eat them,” Dawn said.

Having Juno while living on the streets in Juneau “I think gave him a sense of purpose,” she said.

“He didn’t realize his purpose and the role that he played in the community, I don’t think, because a lot of people have said that they would go to him to distribute food. And then a lot of the homeless people have said that he was the glue that helped them be together. So I don’t think that he realized his role in the community, but I think that having Juno gave him purpose.”

Steven’s siblings, who were able to meet Juno during Sunday’s memorial gathering, said they weren’t interested in adopting her because Florida would be too hot for her comfort. Juno was taken into custody by Juneau Animal Rescue after Steven’s death and is now in a foster-to-adopt situation with a potential new owner who accompanied the dog at the event.

“From what I’ve seen of that dog, that dog has a great temperament,” Monty said on Friday. “It seems like the most laid-back, chill dog I’ve ever seen.”

“She just has separation anxiety,” Dawn responded.

A family and community share their sorrows

During Sunday’s gathering Steven’s siblings got a chance to hear stories from his friends and people in the community who tried to help him during his struggles, hear songs that in some instances were composed for him, and share a few words of their own in return.

“Hopefully Stephen will not die in vain and we can get some change here,” Jason told those assembled under the shelter at Marine Park. “I mean, something needs to happen, and we’re going to fight as hard as we can for him and everybody else in this community. So we just want to thank everybody for coming out. The love is overwhelming.”

Dawn composed a statement that, finding herself unable to deliver herself in the emotions of the moment, was read by Pastor Karen Perkins — who oversaw a warming shelter and food pantry Steven frequented — while standing next to the family.

“Our brother was always a curious person, but one thing he wasn’t was aggressive,” Dawn’s statement notes. “He always cared about others. For a while, he took care of both our mom and dad toward the end of their days. He really tried to love everyone. He would even watch my kids — his niece and nephew— multiple times, and they loved hanging out with him because he made it fun for them. He was also great at making friends anywhere.”

“It’s so awesome to see that he made so many friends that love and care about him. I just wish we weren’t here meeting everyone under these circumstances. My brother, our baby brother, did not deserve what happened. He deserves justice so his soul may find some peace.”

After his family spoke those gathered then marched from the park to Front Street, gathering at a doorway where he frequently slept that was across the street from where he was shot. Flowers and other mementos were placed in the doorway and people clustered in a semicircle with the family at the center placed their hands on each others’ shoulders in a show of support.

“We didn’t know he made this kind of an impact on the community,” Jason said as they returned to the park. “And after he had got shot the amount of people calling us and reaching out to us and telling us stories…I just kind of felt it coming in, just because of how much support we were getting.”

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.