Anchorage Walmart shooting that left 2 dead was murder-suicide, police say

A man shot and killed a woman in the parking lot of the Dimond Walmart in Anchorage on Sunday night before killing himself, police said two days after the shooting.

Anchorage police had earlier said a man and woman died of their injuries in the parking lot outside the store’s entrance in South Anchorage, and a firearm was located at the scene. In a short update Tuesday, police said 29-year-old Saina Fa’atoafe fatally shot the woman before killing himself. No one else was involved, police said, and next of kin have been notified of their deaths.

One of the people killed in the shooting was an employee of the store who was on a break at the time, a Walmart spokesperson said Monday. Anchorage police said they would not release the woman’s identity due to the shooting being a domestic violence-related crime.

[Previous coverage: Employee on break was one of 2 people killed in shooting outside Anchorage Walmart]

Walmart is providing bereavement counseling to employees, the company spokesperson said.

Several Walmart shoppers described a sudden lockdown in the immediate aftermath of Sunday evening’s shooting, which triggered an evacuation at the busy store and closed that location for the rest of the night. The Walmart reopened Monday.

In the hours after the shooting, an Anchorage police officer at the scene had said that police were looking for a suspect. In the days since, the police department has released little additional information and refused to answer some questions about the incident, with a spokeswoman saying Monday that they believed they had “contacted everyone involved” and that there was no public safety concern.

“In this case, we were waiting for the autopsy to be completed to confirm the details, while also taking into consideration the families of the deceased,” police department spokeswoman Sunny Guerin said Tuesday evening.

If you or someone you know needs help, call 911 for immediate emergency assistance. The Alaska Network on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault can be reached at 907-586-3650, with a list of local resources available at andvsa.org/find-help/member-programs. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233), texting START to 88788 or visiting thehotline.org. And if you or someone you know are dealing with a mental health crisis or suicidal thoughts, you can call the 24/7 Alaska Careline at 988 or 1-877-266-HELP at any time.