Man killed friend in hit-and-run after fight, AK officials say. He’s sentenced (2025)

A man accused of hitting his friend with a car on an Alaska highway and then driving away was sentenced in the friend’s death, officials said.

Brian Tyler McGee was sentenced to 4½ years, with two years suspended, after pleading guilty to criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident without assisting an injured person in the 2021 death of Chase Bowerson, the Alaska Department of Law said in an April 25 news release.

A previous agreement with less jail time was rejected, prosecutors said.

McGee’s attorney, Regan Williams, told McClatchy News in an April 29 phone call that his client “feels really terrible about what happened and always has. He feels like he lost a good friend.”

Williams said it was proven that McGee didn’t intentionally hit Bowerson on Jan. 2, 2021. Instead, Bowerson ran in front of McGee’s car, and there wasn’t enough time to avoid hitting him, Williams said.

McGee, now 29, struck the 26-year-old Bowerson and left him on the shoulder, according to prosecutors.

Four hours passed before Bowerson was found, and “traffic cameras in Anchorage spotted McGee deliberately avoiding marked (Anchorage Police Department) patrol cars as he traveled back to his home,” prosecutors said.

McGee and Bowerson had been bar hopping and got into an argument, prosecutors said.

McGee was driving and pulled off the highway south of Eagle River, a suburb of Anchorage, according to prosecutors, who said McGee “forced Bowerson out of the car and drove away with Bowerson’s coat and other property.”

McGee took the items to Bowerson’s home, leaving them at the door, prosecutors said.

McGee then got back on the road, according to prosecutors.

He eventually came upon Bowerson, who was on foot, and he “struck Bowerson with his vehicle,” prosecutors said.

McGee was arrested later in the day, according to prosecutors, who said it was too late to determine what his blood alcohol content had been.

At first, the investigation suggested McGee intentionally turned toward and hit Bowerson, prosecutors said, and he was indicted in connection with first- and second-degree murder and other charges.

But experts later determined he “had not deliberately steered toward Bowerson,” prosecutors said.

Prosecutors ultimately dismissed the murder charges, per the release.

In an April 30 email to McClatchy News, McGee contested that he forced Bowerson out of the car, as prosecutors said, and instead said Bowerson attacked him. McGee said he got out of the car to “deescalate,” Bowerson followed him, and McGee then “left in fear for my safety.”

He said “the state relied on an unqualified witness at grand jury to support” murder charges that took years to be dismissed, and the truth “is far more complex, and deeply human, than the surface narrative that has followed me for years.”

In an online obituary, Bowerson was described as an outdoorsman who had “an innate love for animals, kids, and elders.”

He worked in construction and had “purchased, remodeled, and paid off his home in Chugiak, and also bought a 5-acre Caribou Hills property in Homer that he planned to homestead,” according to the obituary, which said he had a quick wit, contagious laugh and “an unforgettable dimpled smile that lit up whichever room he entered.”

Bowerson “accomplished so much in his short life, and touched the lives and hearts of everyone he met,” the obituary said. “He lives on in the hearts of everyone who is a better person for having known him. He will be forever missed and his family will always be thankful for the time they had with him, but will forever mourn losing him too soon.”

This story was originally published April 29, 2025 at 5:22 PM.