Update 2 p.m. Friday:
The man fatally shot outside a Turnagain apartment building early Thursday has been named by Anchorage police.
Police said in an updated statement that Samuel Biel, 22, was the man who died after he was shot on West 31st Avenue just after midnight Tuesday. His family has been notified.
Original story:
Anchorage police are investigating a man’s death early Thursday after he was shot outside a Turnagain apartment building.
According to a police statement, officers responded just after midnight to reports of the shooting, at an apartment complex on the 2800 block of West 31st Avenue off Turnagain Street.
“Officers located an adult male lying in the parking lot with at least one gunshot wound to the upper body,” police said in the statement. “He was transported to a hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries.”
Police didn’t name the victim Thursday morning as they notified his family. No information on a suspect was publicly available, police said, and the circumstances of the shooting – including whether the victim and suspect knew each other – remained under investigation.
Asked if police believe the shooting was random or targeted, police spokeswoman Renee Oistad said investigators “do not have a public safety concern.” She declined to answer detailed questions about the shooting, due to the ongoing investigation.
Oistad said Thursday afternoon that police don’t believe the shooting has any links to a second shooting at a home on Dailey Avenue in Oceanview, reported at about 8:15 a.m. Thursday. Officers found a man outside with a gunshot wound to the upper body, and he was taken to the hospital. Police said they detained at least one person and took them in for questioning, and “there is no public safety concern.”
Police are asking anyone with information about or surveillance video of either shooting to contact them at 311. Anonymous tips can be submitted online through the Anchorage Crime Stoppers website.
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.
