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Anchorage bar owner says security guard killed shooter who fired on crowd

Police barricades and evidence markers outside The Gaslight Lounge following a fatal shooting on Sunday, July 20, 2025.
Chris Klint
/
Alaska Public Media
Police barricades and evidence markers outside The Gaslight Lounge following a fatal shooting on Sunday, July 20, 2025.

The owner of the downtown Anchorage bar that saw a deadly shooting early Sunday says the man killed in the encounter had exchanged gunfire with security guards.

John Pattee, owner of The Gaslight Lounge, released security footage of the shooting to reporters on Monday. In a lengthy interview, he described a chaotic night that left 23-year-old Leroy Manogiamanu dead and three people wounded.

Anchorage police declined to answer questions about Pattee’s account, including whether Manogiamanu had opened fire before he was killed, saying they’re still investigating.

‘My other staff guy shot him’

According to Pattee, the events leading to the shooting began when two women arrived in a car that parked outside the Gaslight. They had previously been “86’d” from the bar, he said, due to fighting.

“We know who they were, and they tried to enter the bar earlier, and we didn't – we denied them entry,” Pattee said.

Soon afterward, surveillance video reviewed by Alaska Public Media shows a group of men – one of whom Pattee identified as Manogiamanu, based on the police report – walking past the bar eating food. Two of them later returned, wearing sweatshirts and masks. The man Pattee identified was also wearing a backpack on his chest.

Pattee said guards at the Gaslight who saw the masked men radioed an internal warning, calling for backup.

“They were alerted of, there's a potential happening,” he said. “So we moved resources, human resources, to the front of the bar and outside, and that's why we were ready.”

The situation escalated at 2:50 a.m., when the video shows that two of the women from the car started to fight outside the bar. Security staff who approached them also spoke with the masked men, asking them to leave the area.

The video shows one of the men raising a gun, prompting a guard to grab it. After a brief struggle the guard fell to the sidewalk, and the man opened fire on him.

Pattee said the guard was shot seven times, and another guard was struck in his hand. A female patron inside the Gaslight was also grazed by a round, as the video showed the man with the gun backing eastward along the sidewalk, continuing to shoot.

“As he's retreating while he's firing his gun, one of my other security staff – third guy, had gone to his car, which was also parked on the curb,” Pattee said. “He's an ex-military guy, pulled out his weapon. And as the shooter is firing his gun in the direction of where he came from, my other staff guy shot him, killed him.”

The video showed the third guard retrieving a rifle from the car’s trunk, then firing on the shooter. He fell into a fenced planter outside the bar and laid still as police officers ran to the scene.

The guard struck in the hand has been released from medical treatment, according to Pattee, with the other scheduled for release soon. The grazed woman inside the bar drove herself to a hospital, he said.

Manogiamanu, the man who died, was a star football player at Bartlett High School and graduated in 2020. Pattee identified him as the man who started shooting first, though police had not confirmed that as of Tuesday.

An Anchorage police cordon along West 4th Avenue
Chris Klint
/
Alaska Public Media
An Anchorage police cordon along West 4th Avenue at about 8 a.m. Sunday, five hours after the shooting.

A history of violence

Pattee praised the police response to Sunday’s shooting, saying officers arrived at the bar almost immediately. He also praised his security staff, whom he said largely come from military backgrounds and take training beyond what’s required by the state.

“The police said our staff are – they were heroes,” Pattee said.

After more than 40 years as the Gaslight’s owner, Pattee said he thinks violence in Anchorage around the time bars close has gotten worse.

The Gaslight is located on West 4th Avenue, across the street from Anchorage Police Department headquarters and on the same block as another popular bar, the Pioneer Bar. The area has seen multiple late-night shootings over the past several years, especially around closing time — 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Last year, two people were fatally shot near the bars. In June of that year, police shot and wounded Kaleb Bourdukofsky after he allegedly shot and killed another man, Diego Joe, following a fight outside the Pioneer Bar. Just a month later, police say a fight outside of the Gaslight led to gunfire that killed Tah'Jeay Baldwin.

In 2023, Louis Talo was killed in the Gaslight’s north parking lot. In 2022, Carl McGeary was punched outside of the Gaslight and died from his injuries. Later that year, Brodie Smith died after police say he was severely beaten following multiple fights at the Gaslight. In 2019, an employee at the bar was shot and wounded, and in 2016 James Moren was killed in an alley behind the bar.

Pattee attributed the violence, in general, to a “culture of bad people doing bad things and not paying any consequences.” He pushed back against calls from some that the Gaslight be shut down.

“It's summertime in Alaska, and the bad guys come out and start trying to shoot each other, mostly,” he said. “But in this case, my guys are the ones that got shot because they were trying to prevent – there was a struggle over the gun, and (it) shows it in the video.”

In the aftermath of Sunday’s shooting, Pattee said he stands ready to work with others in the community to improve the situation downtown. He said the key element is city support.

In the meantime, he said that Gaslight managers will meet with staff to assess what happened. Staff will also shift more facial-recognition cameras, which provide real-time flags on people previously involved in fights or weapons offenses, to the front of the bar.

“The ones that got into the altercation, they're victimizing my customers – you know, they're victimizing my staff and my club,” Pattee said. “And things like this are happening all over town, and I'm doing my best to keep my good patrons safe and secure.”

Pattee said he would like to see more officers in front of the bars during closing time. He’d also like to see the city close the parking spaces out front during bar-break hours – where, he said, underage drinkers sometimes sit in cars and emerge to incite violence.

“Someone just sitting there, parking there, sitting in their car, is not acceptable. That's just trouble,” he said. “So that's what happened late Saturday, early Sunday morning.”

Police have asked that anyone with information about Sunday’s shooting call them at 311.

Chris Klint is a web producer and breaking news reporter at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cklint@alaskapublic.org.