The two people killed near a Mountain View park that once housed a homeless camp are fondly remembered by people still on the streets nearby, as Anchorage police continue to investigate.
A police update named the man and woman found dead early Tuesday in a snow-dump area near Davis Park as Carl Nielsen Jr., 44, and Sara Ashley Cummings, 34. Police Chief Sean Case has said that the deaths appear to be a double shooting. Police have not announced any arrests in the case.
Mountain View Community Council President Phil Cannon said that some of the people the city cleared in June from two large homeless camps are still in the area, including the nearby Lions Park.
On Thursday afternoon, about half a dozen people were sitting under a pavilion at Lions Park, eating lunch and staying out of the rain. One of them, Bobby Lee, declined to give her last name but said the Davis Park homeless community had been a tightly knit family that kept each other safe.
“We were closer,” she said. “We dealt with the crazy, the not-so-welcome, the rejects, the throw-outs, the ones that didn't fit society standards.”
All that changed, she said, when city officials cleared the camps.
“Once they moved us out of the snow dump, they literally scattered us so we weren't able to find each other at all times; we didn't have a safe place to go,” she said. “They're still moving us about and moving us about. And the fact is when we were together, we were safer.”
Bobby Lee said she was awakened Tuesday by the gunshots near Davis Park. She said she had known Nielsen and Cummings, but she declined to discuss them in detail.
“I'll tell you this,” she said. “They were wonderful – were wonderful, amazing people who would give you the shirt off their backs, who would drive you nuts, who would make you smile, who would be there and hug you and hold you if you needed them, who would take you in if you needed warmth, who would run across town to get you something if you needed it, if you were sick. They were wonderful people, and that's all you need to know.”
Police are asking anyone with information about Nielsen and Cummings’ deaths to call them at 311. Tips can also be submitted anonymously online through Anchorage Crime Stoppers.
Alaska Public Media’s Matthew Faubion contributed information to this story.
