Anchorage police released new information Thursday about a shooting incident Saturday in which police say a man started a fire in a home on the city’s south side and shot at officers before an officer shot back.
Micah Bonin, 43, died in the incident, but police officials said Thursday it was still unclear whether the fire or the officer’s gunshots killed him.
Police received reports of as many as a half-dozen gunshots in the Shore Drive area about 3:30 a.m. Saturday, Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case said at a press conference Thursday.
“At this point, the only thing that I know is that the rounds woke neighbors up, so I don't have any indication of anything that happened prior to that,” Case said.
Officers arrived about nine minutes later and were sporadically fired on for about a half-hour, Case said. They launched a drone to help identify where the shots were coming from, and about 15 minutes after officers arrived, a neighbor told them the shots were coming from a home on nearby Shore Circle, Case said.
Officers saw a man later identified as Bonin shooting from a second-story window.
“We observed a fire that started in the second floor where the subject was,” Case said. “We also knew there was two different caliber guns being used by the subject.”
The fire spread across the second floor, and Bonin later started shooting from a window on the first floor, Case said. During remarks shortly after the shooting Saturday, police said they believed Bonin started the fire and that there was no one else in the home.
After Bonin went to the first floor, Officer Jacob Jones approached the home from the west side and fired three to four rounds through a window that Bonin had broken, Case said.
“All I can say is that after the rounds were fired, the subject was observed going down,” Case said.
Body-worn cameras on the officers recorded the incident, Case said. He said police won’t release the cause of Bonin’s death and will leave that to the state medical examiner’s office. Anchorage firefighters were able to extinguish the fire later Saturday morning.
Jones, the officer who shot at Bonin, had previously shot two different people in 2024, one fatally.
The first was Kristopher Handy, 34, who died after four different officers shot him in the Sand Lake neighborhood that May. The second shooting was two months later, when two officers shot Damien Dollison, 51, after he reportedly fired a shotgun at police outside an East Anchorage gas station.
State prosecutors determined Jones was legally justified to use deadly force in both shootings.
Jones is a K9 officer who works the night shift, which Case said means he often responds to high-risk calls.
“Those factors put him in a position where he just has the opportunity to be in the calls that may lead to officer-involved shootings,” Case said.
Jones was placed on administrative leave for four days following the shooting Saturday. The state Office of Special Prosecutions will review the incident to determine if Jones was legally justified in using deadly force.
Body camera footage of the incident, as well as footage from the drone, will be publicly released at a later date, Case said. The department’s policy is to release footage within 45 days of an incident involving deadly force, though with some exceptions.
The Anchorage Police Department hasn’t met that deadline for any of the 13 police shootings since Anchorage officers started getting outfitted with body-worn cameras in late 2023.
In the Saturday shooting, Case said he anticipates the footage will be released between 45 and 60 days, depending on when the state finishes its investigation.
Saturday’s police shooting is the first in Anchorage this year. Last year, Anchorage officers shot five people, three of whom died.
