Anchorage police fatally shoot armed man after Sand Lake domestic dispute

Update 2:30 p.m. Tuesday:

Anchorage police have named the armed man shot and killed by officers early Monday during a confrontation outside a Sand Lake apartment complex.

Relatives of 34-year-old Kristopher K. Handy have been notified of his death, police said in an updated statement Tuesday.

Original story:

Anchorage police responding to a domestic dispute early Monday shot and killed a man after they say he raised a gun at them.

No one else was injured, according to an Anchorage Police Department statement.

Police say officers were called to the Sand Lake area around 2:15 a.m. for reports of a disturbance between a man and a woman in an apartment on the 7100 block of Bearfoot Drive. As officers headed to the scene, dispatchers received word that the man had left the apartment complex carrying a long gun, according to the police statement.

“Several officers arrived and formed two approach teams,” the statement said. “As they advanced towards the apartment complex on foot, the adult male raised a long gun towards the officers. Four officers discharged their weapons, striking the adult male at least once in the upper body.”

Police say officers immediately provided first aid, with medics taking over when they arrived, but the man died at the scene. His name was not immediately available as police notify his family.

Several APD vehicles were still outside the apartment complex at midday Monday, including the department’s crime-scene RV. Police tape marked off the carport and parking area in front of the complex, with a few evidence markers on parked police vehicles and on the ground just outside the tape.

Police said in their statement that the state Office of Special Prosecutions is reviewing the shooting to determine whether officers’ use of force was justified. APD Internal Affairs will then review the shooting for any violations of police policy.

At a brief news conference Monday morning, APD Chief Bianca Cross said officers at the scene were wearing body cameras, but the footage from them will not be publicly available until the investigation is completed. She said other details, including the relationship between the man and woman in the dispute and any prior police contacts with the man, were still under investigation.

This is the first time Anchorage officers who have shot and killed a person during a police response were wearing body cameras under a new department policy. Voters approved the purchase of the cameras in spring 2021, but it took more than two years for the police department to implement a policy and start outfitting officers with them.

The four officers who fired on the man have been placed on administrative leave for four days, in accordance with APD policy. They will be identified in three days.