The Anchorage Police Department has released the names of two officers involved in a fatal officer-involved shooting Tuesday evening outside an eastside Home Depot store.
APD officers Cole Grigg and Bart Filipowicz both fired their weapons during a response to a robbery and assault, according to the department. Their names were released after they were placed on administrative leave for four days, in keeping with APD policy.
Benjamin Zeckovic, 23, died as a result of the shooting.
Zeckovic took hatchets and axes from the Home Depot near the Northway Mall just before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and assaulted a loss-prevention employee. When police units arrived, he threw some of the weapons at officers and then advanced on them wielding a hatchet, police said.
Grigg has been with the department for 13 years and Filipowicz has been with APD for almost two years, police said.
The shooting is being investigated by the State Office of Special Prosecutions, which will determine if the officers' use of force was justified. An Internal Affairs investigation will also determine if the officers' actions were within policy.
Grigg was injured in February 2009 when he hit and killed a moose that ran in front of his vehicle and smashed through the windshield, according to an Anchorage Daily News story. He was on his way home from work.
Court records show Zeckovic placed a 911 call expressing suicidal thoughts and threatening police officers just days before his death.
His sister Zehra Zeckovic said none of his friends and family know why he robbed the store or what followed.