Anchorage police shot and killed a man on Tuesday who they say was waving a gun as he walked down East Tudor Road, pointing it at people and cars. This is the first fatal police shooting in Anchorage this year.
Police have not yet released the man’s name.
Police Chief Sean Case said roughly a dozen 911 calls came in at 1:17 p.m. reporting an armed man, wearing dark clothes, on Tudor Road near Folker Street — a busy thoroughfare through Midtown near a Taco Bell and Subway.
“Some of the callers said he was pointing the weapon at other people. Some of the callers said the weapon was pointed at them, that he was putting the gun in and out of his waistband, that he was stepping into traffic,” Case said. “At one point in time, he stepped in front of a school bus and tried to stop a school bus.”
Case said the bus swerved around the man, and police later learned there were no children aboard.
Within three minutes of the 911 calls, Case said, an officer arrived on scene. The officer got out of his car as the man crossed Tudor Road, and he demanded that the man drop his gun.
“The officer advised, ordered really, the subject to take his hand off the gun, and shortly after providing that command, the officer fired approximately five rounds,” Case said.
He said the officer did not use any non-lethal weapons before firing his gun. It all happened very quickly, he said, and he estimated the officer was 15 feet or less from the man.
The man was declared dead at the scene.
Multiple police body cameras and dashboard cameras captured the incident, and that footage will be released later, Case said.
No officers were harmed in the shooting, according to police spokesman Chris Barraza. When asked if the man had fired his weapon, Barraza said, “not that we’re aware of.”
This marks the third person shot by Anchorage police this year.
Two different men were shot and wounded by police within a 24-hour period in early January. Michael Krischuk, 34, was shot by officers on Jan. 7 after police say he attempted to rob a Midtown spa. Meanwhile, 38-year-old Trevor Stefano was shot by officers the following morning after he opened fire on a Government Hill home, and injured the homeowner. Both men shot by officers face felony charges.
Last year, Anchorage police shot eight people, killing five of them.
During the news conference, Case said he thinks about not only the officers impacted by the shootings, but also the entire community that has been impacted.
“I think about the neighborhoods that have been spread throughout town, the various communities, just the sheer number of people that this has impacted, in some of the violent activity that we see in Anchorage,” he said. “And those things are, they're concerning to me, and I think they're concerning to us as a community.”
He said violent crime has been a challenge in Anchorage for several years.
“So it's not just the police department’s response to some of these incidents,” he said. “It's going to be how we respond as a community collectively.”
