An 18-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder and robbery in connection with a fatal shooting in an Anchorage Walgreens parking lot in late January.
The arrest of Keiara Reynaud comes about two weeks after a 14-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting 18-year-old Charles Gustav Steinhilpert III on Jan. 25. Police said earlier that the incident occurred when two groups of teens met at the Walgreens at the intersection of Lake Otis Parkway and Tudor Road for a drug deal.
During the transaction, the 14-year-old suspect, whose name has been withheld because he is a juvenile, got in an argument with Steinhilpert, police said. The suspect took out a gun and fired it once, striking Steinhilpert, police said. Steinhilpert died about 20 minutes later at a hospital.
In a statement Saturday, police said Reynaud had been arrested in connection with the shooting and taken to Anchorage jail, where she was being held without bail. Reynaud's connection to the incident was not immediately clear. A police spokeswoman could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon.
Police said in the statement that the incident remains under investigation. Steinhilpert's death was the first homicide of the year and was followed closely by a string of three other fatal shootings.
The spike in violence, which police said appeared to be drug-related, prompted the Anchorage Police Department to form a special investigative task force that began meeting last week.