On Saturday, Track Palin, 28, the oldest child of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was arrested on assault and burglary charges after allegedly striking his father Todd when Track visited the family home in Wasilla.
According to Wasilla officer Adam LaPointe’s statement in an affidavit, local police arrived after Sarah Palin called at roughly 8:30 p.m. to say her son was “freaking out and was on some type of medication.” The affidavit also stated that Track had returned home to pick up a truck he wanted, but his father had warned him not to come home because Track had been drinking while he was also on pain medication. LaPointe stated, “Track told him he was (going to) come anyway to beat his ass.”
The affidavit stated that Todd Palin informed police he had retrieved his pistol to “protect his family,” meeting Track with the gun when Track arrived home, only to find the front door locked and his father pointing a gun at him through a window next to the door. Track reportedly told his father several times to shoot him, then punched out the window when Todd tapped it with the gun. Track allegedly entered the house through the window, then got his father on the ground, hitting him repeatedly on the head.
Todd Palin escaped from the house; the officers witnessing the scene said Todd was injured on his face and head with various cuts and had liquid oozing from his ear. They saw Todd leave the house in a vehicle with blood streaming down his face. One officer noted that Sarah Palin, who was in the second vehicle that left, was “visibly upset.” Meanwhile officers figured out Track Palin was alone in the house as they heard him yelling from inside.
Police beckoned Track Palin to exit. LaPointe wrote, “Track stood on the porch. Communication was attempted which failed due to Track yelling and calling myself and other officers peasants and telling us to lay our guns on the ground before approaching the residence.”
Then Track Palin reentered the house, coming out onto the garage roof. LaPointe stated, “He moved around in a strange manner and assumed a prone position just behind the roof line in what appeared to be an attempt to locate officers on the property.”
Accordingly to the affidavit, Track returned inside the house, and it took another 10 to 15 minutes before he responded to police, ultimately agreeing to come outside to talk. Police put him handcuffs and read him his Miranda rights in the back of a patrol car. Track Palin confessed he’d had a few beers earlier and gotten into a fight with his father about a vehicle and “there had been threats made between them,” according to the affidavit.
Track Palin was arrested on domestic violence charges of felony first-degree burglary and misdemeanor criminal mischief and fourth-degree assault, his second domestic-violence arrest in less than two years. He was already serving two years of probation on a plea deal stemming from a January 2016 domestic violence arrest at Todd and Sarah Palin’s home. In that incident, Palin’s girlfriend told the officer that Track “struck her on the left side of her head near her eye with a closed fist.” He allegedly kicked his girlfriend, threw her cell phone, and threatened suicide with his AR-15 rifle.
Sarah Palin said at the time that her son was suffering from PTSD, and also blamed former President Obama, stating:
My son, like so many others, they come back a bit different, they come back hardened, they come back wondering if there is that respect for what it is that their fellow soldiers and airmen every other member of the military so sacrificially have given to this country. … It starts from the top. The question though it comes from our own president, when they have to look at him and wonder, do you know what we go through, do you know what we’re trying to do to secure America and to secure the freedoms that have been bequeathed us? So when my own son is going through what he goes through, coming back, I can certainly relate with other families who feel these ramifications of some PTSD and some of the woundedness that our soldiers do return with.
Track Palin served in Iraq for a year and served with the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team.