Anchorage police have arrested a 19-year-old man who is accused of tracking down a woman near downtown Anchorage over the weekend and killing her in a drive-by shooting.
Police said in an updated statement Wednesday morning that Jacob Berkey faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of Kawena Naleieha, 26.
According to a charging document against Berkey, a 911 caller at 8 a.m. Sunday reported finding Naleieha lying on the side of North Post Road in an industrial area near Ship Creek. She was covered in blood and had what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds. A responding detective helped the caller provide CPR before medics took Naleieha to Providence Alaska Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.
The charges say surveillance video from a nearby business show a green Subaru with “a distinctive white hood” driving past Naleieha, just a few minutes before she was found wounded.
“The video shows Ms. Naleieha turn her head and appear to look at the Subaru,” prosecutors said in the charges.
Early Tuesday, police got a report of a similar Subaru broken down near Chena Avenue and Davis Street in Muldoon, with several people trying to start it up again. Officers detained its driver, Berkey.
At police headquarters, the charges say, Berkey allegedly confessed to detectives that he was “looking for” Naleieha on Sunday morning, then shot her from behind the Subaru’s wheel.
“(Berkey) said that once he saw her, he rolled the driver’s side window down, slowed the vehicle by pressing the brakes, aimed a SIG P233 .22-caliber pistol using the sights as Ms. Naleieha and pulled the trigger at least five times,” prosecutors said. “He stated that he observed Ms. Naleieha fall to the ground and then he drove away.”
The charging document does not mention any relationship between Berkey and Naleieha, or any motive for the shooting.
A police spokesperson declined to answer detailed questions about the shooting and the investigation Wednesday.
Police said Berkey was arrested and held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.
Naleieha’s death is Anchorage’s 19th homicide this year, after three deaths on Sept. 9 including the double shooting of Carl Nielsen Jr., 44, and Sara Ashley Cummings, 34, near Davis Park in Mountain View. By Wednesday, police had not announced any arrests in that case.
Later on Sept. 9, police say Matthew Siavalua, 20, fatally shot another man during a fight before turning himself in. He now faces a second-degree murder charge.
