An Anchorage Police officer was wounded earlier today during a shootout at a local motel.
APD spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said the shooting took place at the Merrill Field Inn. The motel was evacuated and Fifth Avenue, one of the main traffic arteries into the city, was shut down for about two hours. Parker says it all began when two APD officers were investigating a burglary.
The injured officer and the two people in the motel room were taken to safety, and a SWAT team was called in to negotiate with the shooter, whom, Parker says, police believe was wounded during the return gunfire. The suspect, as yet un-named, surrendered to police officers at about 1:30 this afternoon.
Listen for the full story
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
