An Anchorage man stands accused of murdering his girlfriend at their apartment last month, with prosecutors saying a bullet he fired into his head during a suicide attempt went horribly astray.

Anchorage police Lt. John McKinnon said Victor Carl Sibson, 21, was charged with one count of second-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Brittanymae P. Haag. Sibson had been at large this week, but police said he turned himself in Friday afternoon.

Police responded in the early hours of April 19 to the 5600 block of Lake Otis Parkway, after Haag asked a neighbor to contact dispatchers and report the shooting. Haag and Sibson were hospitalized; Haag died later that morning, and Sibson was treated for life-threatening injuries.

Investigators didn't identify Sibson at the time but emphasized that they had contacted everyone involved in the shooting.

Assistant District Attorney James Fayette, who is handling the case against Sibson, said Thursday that prosecutors believe Haag was trying to stop Sibson from killing himself when the shooting occurred. Sibson is left-handed, and a handgun he was holding to his left temple discharged a round, causing a "through-and-through" wound. The bullet then emerged from Sibson's head and struck Haag in the right side of her chest.

"What we have is a struggle-for-the-gun suicide attempt that resulted in Mr. Sibson putting a bullet through his own skull," Fayette said, "… followed by the extreme-indifference killing of a domestic partner."

Sibson was also "very drunk" at the time, Fayette said, based on hospital testing that put his blood-alcohol content at over 0.3 after the shooting. He quickly recovered from his injuries, however, and investigators spoke with him at the hospital after he left intensive care less than a week later.

McKinnon said police forwarded potential charges against Sibson of first- and second-degree murder to a grand jury, which indicted him on the second-degree count.