More than 100 Anchorage community members gathered at the Park Strip Friday afternoon for a vigil to remember Easter Leafa, a 16-year-old who was shot and killed by police this week.
Leafa had recently moved to Anchorage from American Samoa and was set to start her junior year of high school. Instead, she was killed Tuesday night by Anchorage police after they were called to her home, told by dispatchers that she was armed with a knife.
She’s the sixth person shot by Anchorage police since mid-May, and the fourth to die from a police shooting.
Pastor Adrienne Richardson of the Church of God and Saints of Christ First Tabernacle spoke first at the vigil as organizers passed out small electric candles.
“This is not Chicago. This is not New York. This is not Detroit. This is Anchorage,” Richardson said. “I don’t know why some of you are here. But I remain here because I believe Anchorage is a safe place for people of all colors and denominations and cultures to live.”
The shooting has generated outrage among community members, but Richardson said the vigil was no place for anger.
“We are not here to indict the administration or the police department or anything like this,” Richardson said. “We’re here as a unified body, different ministers and clergy to pray.”
Several attendees wore shirts with Easter’s face on them. The crowd ranged in age, with some children standing near elders, as several Anchorage clergy members gave remarks. Reverend Patricia Wilson-Cane of First American Baptist Church highlighted how young Leafa was when she was killed.
“Sixteen years of growing up,” Wilson-Cane said. “Sixteen years with her parents. Sixteen years with her siblings. Sixteen years in Samoa, and moved here to Anchorage, Alaska for a better life, for a better education.”
The vigil was organized by Lucy Hansen, head of the Polynesian Association of Alaska. Hansen spoke to the crowd, pausing often to speak through tears. She also focused much of her comments on children.
“What can we do to protect our kids,” Hansen asked. “What can we say to our kids to trust the law enforcement? How can we make that clear, and how can we make them believe that the law is there for them?”
After the vigil, Hansen said that she’s heard anguish from members of the Polynesian community, especially from children.
“Our young kids are very afraid now to the point that if they call the police, are they going to come,” Hansen said. “Are they going to come and save them, or they're going to come and kill them, you know? So that is the thing that we're hearing in our community from our kids.”
In response to the shooting, Anchorage mayor Suzanne LaFrance announced a series of reforms aimed at curbing police shootings. She says Leafa’s shooting will be investigated by a third party, and the city will soon set up a community advisory board for the police.
Hansen says she appreciates the attention that the shooting is garnering from the city and the community, and said she hopes the momentum continues.
“I think it's a good starting point, but I think I need to see it more continuing, you know,” Hansen said.
To close her vigil remarks, Hansen gave a message in Samoan to the family.
Roughly translated, she said it meant -- she knew what the family was going through, and that seeking out God would help them find peace, forgiveness and light in their lives.
And as attendees continued to hold their candles, the vigil ended with the crowd singing the traditional hymn, “This Little Light of Mine.”
