APD: Officer shot and killed man who opened fire on neighbors

An Anchorage police officer shot and killed a resident of a condominium complex late Wednesday night about two hours after the man started trouble with a neighbor, the police department said Thursday.

Police haven't named the man who was shot and killed, but said he was firing a gun and that the situation was volatile when officers arrived.

Just before 10 p.m., someone broke out the front window of one of the condo units, Deputy Police Chief Kenneth McCoy said. Police now believe the window was broken by the unnamed man banging it with his handgun. McCoy referred to him as the suspect.

The woman who lives in the unit heard something and found the broken window. She called a maintenance man.

"At about 11:20 p.m., the neighbor and the maintenance person were assessing the damage when the suspect emerged from his garage and fired several shots at them," McCoy said. They ducked back into the woman's home and called 911.

About a dozen officers eventually descended on the development south of downtown on the 2000 block of Salmonberry Place. The area is between A Street and C Street, just south of the Chester Creek greenbelt.

They could hear shots being fired but couldn't immediately tell where they were coming from, police said. They formed a perimeter and started to look for the suspect.

At 11:54 p.m., the man stepped out of his garage, firing his gun. An officer returned fire, firing multiple shots and hitting the man at least once in the torso, McCoy said. Police and medics tried to save him but he was declared dead at the scene, the deputy chief said.

Only one officer fired and has been placed under administrative leave, as is standard in police shootings. The results of the investigation will be sent to the state Office of Special Prosecutions, which reviews police shootings in Alaska.

"Right now we are still investigating trying to determine what the motive was," McCoy said. "However, this is a rare type of incident where someone unprovoked acts out violently this way."

The man's name is being withheld until his family can be notified.

Police couldn't yet say whether he had a history of trouble, whether the neighbors had an ongoing dispute, or whether he had mental illness.

No officers or innocent witnesses were hurt, McCoy said. He said the officers acted heroically in a dangerous situation.

This is the second fatal shooting by Anchorage police officers this year. On Nov. 15, Thomas Barclay was shot and killed by officers after he pointed a gun at them in a supermarket parking lot in Muldoon.

In two other Anchorage police shootings this year, the person survived.