Trooper Cody Litster was about to pack everything he needed for the day into his truck one Thursday morning when he got a phone call about a shooting in his jurisdiction, 50 miles away.

"It seems like it's all making sense now that I've asked a few more questions," said Litster, on his first call with a school administrator in Kake, who reported the shooting.

Litster, a wildlife trooper, was in Petersburg when he first heard from Kake, a small village with no local police that's two hours away by boat. There had been "someone with a gun, maybe threatening people."

"Maybe the troopers are on th...