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A 21-year-old man indicted in a shooting that left one woman dead and injured four others last month near downtown Anchorage appeared in court Tuesday on multiple charges, including murder and attempted murder.
Anthony Herring opened fire on a group of people near the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Gambell Street in the early hours of June 19, according to charging documents filed in the case. Jaclyn Welcome, 37, died at the hospital, and a woman and three men were seriously wounded by the gunfire.
Anchorage police spokesman MJ Thim said Monday that none of the four people who were wounded have died, but police would not provide any additional details about their condition or say if they were still hospitalized. All four underwent surgery after the shooting, charges said.
Little new information has been released about the case, including whether a clear motive has been identified.
Herring, an employee at the Cline’s Tesoro service station near the shooting, had argued with a group of homeless individuals the day before the shooting, according to witness and police accounts. Homeless advocates have said some of the victims were familiar to them.
Police Chief Ken McCoy previously said that investigators do not believe Herring was directly targeting the group of people because they were homeless, but that Herring’s frustration with the group escalated to violence.
In a video posted to social media the day before the shooting, two men are seen confronting a group of people in the parking lot next to the gas station. The younger man is seen holding a baseball bat that he uses to threaten a woman who gets near him as he screams profanities at her and shouts at others in the group.
In charging documents, Herring’s girlfriend told investigators he drove to the service station early on June 19 and “complained about the homeless people who gathered there and expressed anger and frustration at them.” Then Herring opened fire, she said.
He was arrested later on the day of the shooting when he returned to the area for work, police said.
Welcome’s family has described Herring’s actions as evil and said her death was senseless. She was a mother of six who loved her family and also struggled with addiction and mental health issues, her family said. Welcome fell into a toxic relationship that led her to experience homelessness over the last three years, according to her family members, and her sisters described how they looked forward to bringing her home and wanted to help her get treatment.
An Anchorage grand jury indicted Herring on Friday on 13 charges, including first- and second-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree weapons misconduct and evidence tampering.
He appeared telephonically during Tuesday’s arraignment hearing, and Judge Kevin Saxby ruled that the $350,000 cash bail set at Herring’s first court appearance will remain in place. Herring’s next court appearance is scheduled for August.