A man has been charged with murdering one person and severely wounding a second during a downtown Anchorage parking-lot shooting in late January, before allegedly fleeing town.
Court records show Musa Njie, 23, faces first-degree and second-degree counts of murder in the death of 21-year-old Louis Talo. Njie is also charged with first-degree and second-degree attempted murder in the shooting of a second victim, who was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
The shooting occurred Jan. 28, and prosecutors just filed the murder charges against Njie on Tuesday. A charging document, written by an Anchorage Police Department detective, reveals what investigators believe happened that night.
According to the charges, a 911 call reported the shooting, in the north parking lot of the Gaslight Lounge, at about 3:20 a.m. early on a Saturday morning.
Responding medics found the wounded man, who had been shot twice in the torso, and took him to a local hospital. They also tried to transport Talo, but he died at the scene.
Surveillance video of the parking lot recorded an argument outside just before the gunfire, according to the charges. Police spoke with several witnesses and viewed multiple cellphone videos of the incident.
One witness said Talo had slapped a cup of coffee out of the suspect’s hand during the encounter. Another witness said the suspect, later identified by police as Njie, knew both Talo and his father, who was also present.
“(The witness) heard Talo say, ‘do not disrespect my father like that’ and Talo’s father was trying to pull Talo away,” police wrote in the charging document. “Talo and the suspect almost got into a fight but didn’t. The shooter walked away and then grabbed the gun, possibly from the car, and shot four times.”
Talo didn’t have a gun, according to the second witness. The witness described the suspect as an African American man standing about 6 feet, 2 inches tall, with thick shoulder-length dreadlocks and a goatee.
The charges say police were later able to identify Njie – who is also a suspect in a December forgery case being investigated by APD – from DMV photos, social media accounts and witness accounts. They also learned that Njie had taken a Jan. 31 flight out of town, with surveillance video showing him being dropped off by a taxi cab at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
Njie was not listed in custody in Alaska Friday. An APD spokesperson declined to comment Thursday on the condition of the surviving victim and would not say whether Musa was in custody elsewhere or provide a photo of him.
Court records show a warrant issued on Tuesday for Njie’s arrest, with no bail permitted until he has appeared in court.
Chris Klint is a web producer and breaking news reporter at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cklint@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Chris here.
