A woman crossing a major Midtown street Monday evening was struck and killed by a car according to Anchorage police, who arrested its driver after he allegedly left the scene.
Larry W. Anderson, Jr., 40, was taken into custody after the A Street collision, police said in an online statement. The victim hasn’t been named as police notify her family.
Police say officers responded at 6:15 p.m. Monday to the collision near the Sullivan Arena, on A Street between Fireweed Lane and East 16th Avenue. Police said the woman had been crossing A Street when she was struck by a Dodge Charger heading north.
“The victim was not in a crosswalk; she was declared deceased at the scene by AFD medics,” police said in the statement.
According to a charging document against Anderson, a driver in a van nearby at the time of the collision told police that the woman ran into 45-mph traffic from the left side of the street. He said a black truck was in front of the Charger at the moment before impact.
“She ran out into the first lane of traffic and was a third of the way into the lane when the black truck swerved to avoid her,” police said in the document. “The Charger continued north and may have swerved slightly to the right before striking the pedestrian.”
Anchorage police spokesman Renee Oistad said Tuesday that police were still investigating why the woman ran into traffic.
Both the van and truck drivers stopped to help, according to the charging document. The truck’s driver told police that he did not believe Anderson would have been able to see the woman before impact. He also told officers that Anderson briefly got out of the Charger, then got back inside and drove off, the charges say.
Police found Anderson’s Charger behind a Chevron gas station at 6th Avenue and Ingra Street. Police say Anderson was attempting to leave the gas station in a taxi cab. They ordered him out and took him into custody, the charging document says.
According to the charges, he told police he was on his way home from work and admitted he was the driver in the collision.
Police said in the document that Anderson’s driver’s license has been permanently revoked, after he was convicted of felony DUI in December 2021.
Anderson was arrested on charges of driving with a revoked license, leaving the scene of an accident and failure to render aid. He was being held Tuesday at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.
Anchorage police have arrested at least two other drivers this year in fatal hit-and-run collisions. Josiah Martinez, 19, was charged with failure to render aid and driving without a license after the April 7 Fairview death of 32-year-old Phillip Lurie, and Marsean Hadley, 29, was charged with manslaughter and DUI in the March 2 Old Seward Highway death of Brian Pederson.
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.
