A 24-year-old man was found dead in a pool of blood on a sidewalk in an East Anchorage neighborhood early Wednesday and police are calling it a homicide.
Police identified the man as Edward Yazzie, an Anchorage resident who lived less than a half-mile away from where his body was found.
Police were dispatched to the 1500 block of Columbine Street at 12:31 a.m. after motorists and a person riding a bicycle came across the body on the sidewalk and called it in, said police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker.
Fire Department medics declared him dead at the scene after efforts to revive him failed, Parker said. Yazzie had been seen alive as recently as an hour before, he said.
Parker would not say how Yazzie died but said he was not the victim of gunshot wounds or a hit-and-run. Police do not want to elaborate because of the ongoing investigation.
The area where Yazzie was found is a residential region of Airport Heights, just south of 15th Avenue and on the same block as where the giant snowman that has come to be known as Snowzilla was constructed. Yazzie's body was found slumped over concrete steps leading to a house, Parker said.
At the scene Wednesday, dark spots of washed-off blood stained the sidewalk outside a home. Two big pine trees stood on either side of the path to the door of the house, the branches sheltering a bright Little Tikes slide and an overturned plastic truck just feet from where Yazzie's body was discovered.
There was no answer at the door.
Across the street, Walt Morgan, 62, said his family didn't hear arguing or anything that sounded like a disturbance.
"We were awake," Morgan said. "We just heard some car doors slamming and that's all we heard."
Police soon showed up in force and closed off the street, leaving the shirtless body on the pavement for hours, he said.
Yazzie has an extensive criminal record dating back at least to age 18, according to court records. Charges include vehicle theft, assault, shoplifting, burglary and drunken driving. In January, police charged Yazzie with resisting arrest and assault for refusing to sit in the back of a police car and head-butting a police officer, according to court records.
A woman at Yazzie's home in Penland Mobile Home Park, just across DeBarr Road from where he was found, declined to comment.
Investigators are asking that anyone who knows of Yazzie's whereabouts between 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and 12:30 a.m. Wednesday contact them at 786-8900.
The death is the ninth homicide in Anchorage this year, including two shootings involving police officers.
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call 257-4589. Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.
By JAMES HALPIN and MEGAN HOLLAND
Anchorage Daily News