Anchorage police have identified the man fatally shot by officers Monday as 21-year-old Tyler May.
May’s identity was among a few additional details about the shooting released by Anchorage police chief designee Bianca Cross at a news conference Wednesday.
Cross said police were responding to a report of shots fired Monday night in the parking lot of the Anchorage Senior Activity Center in Fairview. She said officers instructed the two armed men there to drop their weapons.
“One male followed orders and was contacted and detained at the scene,” Cross said. “The second male adult continued to walk away from officers. K9 was deployed and made contact with the second suspect.”
Cross said May, the second suspect, pulled out a handgun as the K9 was biting him and he was on the ground. Three officers shot at May, killing him. All three were wearing body cameras.
Cross said she’s seen some, but not all of the body camera footage of the incident. She said it’s not clear why May was shooting his gun in the parking lot in the first place.
“I can’t give you an exact reason why,” Cross said. She said May and the other man “were at least acquainted with each other and had come from a nearby residence.”
The other man was not charged, and police have determined that only May had been firing his weapon, according to Cross.
This is the third time in less than a month that Anchorage officers have shot an armed man during a police response.
Last month, officers fatally shot 34-year-old Kristopher Handy while responding to a report of a domestic dispute. Early Saturday, officers shot and injured 22-year-old Kaleb Bourdukofsky after he allegedly shot two men downtown, killing one. Cross said the three incidents aren’t connected.
“They all seem to be isolated incidents, and all the people that were involved had weapons on them,” Cross said. “We don’t dictate what the circumstances are. We simply respond to the calls and we move on from there.”
Like in the first two shootings, Cross said the body camera footage from Monday night will be released after a state Office of Special Prosecutions investigation and an internal APD investigation.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
