Update, May 16: On May 14 the Anchorage Police Department released the names of the two officers who opened fire during Saturday's incident. They are identified as Senior Patrol Officer Eric Nowak, who has been with APD for 8 years, and Senior Patrol Officer Julnudda Jackson, who has been with APD for 5 and a half years.
Two Anchorage Police Officers fired their guns at an reportedly stolen vehicle during an incident Saturday morning in which the vehicle rammed into a patrol unit. No injuries were reported, and three suspects are now in custody.
Anchorage Police dispatchers received a call shortly after 10 a.m. Saturday from a citizen who reported seeing two people doing drugs in a vehicle near 4th Avenue and State Street in East Anchorage. Dispatchers ran a routine check of the license plate and discovered the vehicle was a blue Nissan pickup truck that had been reported stolen, police spokesperson Dani Myren said on Sunday.
Once officers arrived on the scene, they positioned their patrol units to block the truck from exiting the area. The vehicle occupants "failed to comply with verbal command," from officers and instead drove forward, hitting a patrol unit and pushing past it, Myren said. The vehicle continued forward, driving through a fence and heading east on 4th Avenue.
The vehicle cut across the Standish Park playground and came to a halt at Standish Street. Two occupants were apprehended in the vehicle while the driver, identified as Ryan Robert Portlock, 26, fled on foot. He was apprehended a few minutes later on Cherry Street.
At some point during the incident, two officers fired their weapons and struck the vehicle. None of the vehicle occupants were hit or injured.
The suspects have been identified as Portlock, Cory Michael Wolf, 26, and Amber JoBell Meyers, 29.
Portlock was charged with theft in the second degree, vehicle theft in the first degree, attempted vehicle theft in the first degree, unlawful possession and criminal mischief in the third degree. Wolf and Meyers were each charged with criminal mischief in the 5th degree.
The names of the officers who discharged their weapons will not be released for 72 hours, per Anchorage Police Department policy, and details surrounding the discharge of the officer's weapons were not available on Sunday. The Office of Special Prosecution and Appeals will conduct an investigation concerning the officer's use of their weapons.
This is the second incident in 2013 in which Anchorage police have fired on an allegedly stolen vehicle after it rammed into a patrol unit; in February police shot at and killed Carl Richard Bowie III after he rammed several police vehicles with an allegedly stolen pick-up truck while attempting to flee, in the area of 88th Ave. and Lake Otis Boulevard. Anchorage Police chief Mark Mew said in April that the department was working with other law enforcement agencies to identify ways to reduce the number of officer-involved shootings in the Last Frontier.
Contact Laurel Andrews at laurel(at)alaskadispatch.com