Update, 4:30 p.m. Friday: Anchorage police identified the man who died earlier this week from “trauma to the upper body” as Ronald Raymond, 51.
Next of kin have been notified. Police are investigating Raymond’s death as a homicide.
Original story:
A man in East Anchorage died Tuesday night from “trauma to the upper body,” police said in an online alert. Officers are now investigating the case as a homicide.
First responders were initially called to a home on the 4600 block of East Fourth Avenue around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday because a man was unconscious, the alert said. Police said he was pronounced dead at the scene. Homicide detectives and the department’s crime scene team investigated because officers said the death was “suspicious in nature.”
The medical examiner later determined the man’s body showed signs of trauma, although the type of trauma is still under investigation, according to police.
Police said they believe the incident was isolated and not random. The victim’s name was not released Thursday afternoon.
A spokeswoman for the department said no other details were available Thursday, but the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the investigation or surveillance footage is asked to call non-emergency Dispatch at 311 or Crime Stoppers at 907-561-STOP.
This is the 32nd homicide of 2019, not including three officer-involved shooting deaths. Anchorage had a record-high number of homicides in 2017, when 37 people died, not including two officer-involved shootings. Thirty people died in homicides the following year, not including one officer-involved shooting.