Three people are dead in Anchorage after a shooting and unrelated stabbing Friday night. Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case said both suspects are in custody and there is no ongoing public safety threat.
Case said that, in both cases, the suspects and their victims knew each other — a pattern that is typical in homicides in the city.
“It's not just a complete random act of violence, which I think we all can agree is a lot more of a scary thing for the public if you have something like that happening,” he said.
Prosecutors have charged 36-year-old Mario Jackson in connection with two of the deaths.
The six-page charging document describes police officers responding to numerous reports of gunshots downtown, at 8th Avenue and Cordova Street. They found a man and a woman dead of apparent gunshot wounds to the head. Security footage showed a man on an electric scooter arguing with the pair before eventually shooting both at close range.
The charges say numerous leads pointed to Jackson as a suspect. Officers found him Saturday at a mini-mart near the scene of the crime. He was riding the same scooter, wearing the same shoes and carrying the same speaker as the shooter in security footage.
Jackson also lived and worked at a local hotel nearby. The charges say officers found an empty box of ammunition in his hotel room that matched casings found at the crime sight. The owner said the two victims had also stayed at the hotel in the past, and the three knew each other, according to the charges.
Jackson faces two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder.
Police also responded to a stabbing Friday evening southeast of Valley of the Moon Park, near 20th Avenue and C Street. Medics transported a woman to the hospital, where she died. Police have not yet charged anyone, but Case said there is no public safety threat. He said a suspect is in custody for other reasons, and police are putting together charges.
Police have not yet released the names of any of the victims.
Case said the three homicides aren’t indicative of an increase in violent crime. He said rates in Anchorage have been relatively steady in recent years.
“These three were probably right on par for where it was last year, and really the last couple of years,” he said. “If you just kind of drew a line on what the average was, we're right there in the ballpark of where we've been. So obviously, we like to be lower.”
Case said police had already increased patrols in the downtown area this weekend because of multiple events, such as the Alaska Federation of Natives convention, the No Kings protest and the opening of a shelter at the Egan Center to house evacuees from Western Alaska. He said following the Friday night homicides, the department added even more patrols.
