Man shot by Anchorage police charged with murder in earlier downtown shooting

A 22-year-old man who was shot and injured by Anchorage police officers downtown early Saturday has been charged with murder in a nearby shooting death moments earlier.

Kaleb Eugene Bourdukofsky is accused of shooting two men — one who died and another who survived and was hospitalized, according to police. Those shootings followed a fight outside a bar nearby, charges say.

Bourdukofsky, who survived the shooting by officers and was also hospitalized, faces charges of first- and second-degree murder, misconduct involving a weapon and second-degree assault, according to charging documents filed Sunday.

The shootings happened around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, police said. According to the criminal complaint, officers responding to shots fired “saw a male with a gun running through a parking lot” off Third Avenue between G and H streets.

“Officers began chasing the male and giving verbal commands,” the complaint says. “The male refused to stop and was shot by police.” He was shot near the corner of G Street and Third Avenue, police said earlier. He was taken to the hospital and identified as Bourdukofsky, the charges say.

Nearby, in an alcove behind the Pioneer Bar, officers found a man on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds, charges say. He was declared dead at the scene, the charges say. Another man had been shot in the leg while standing in the area behind the Pioneer Bar, and he was taken to the hospital, charges say.

Neither of those two men had been identified as of Sunday evening.

According to the charges, witnesses told police that Bourdukofsky had shot the man on the ground. Police watched surveillance video that showed Bourdukofsky and the man who died had been in a fight shortly before, that the man had punched Bourdukofsky in the face and that they ended up on the ground fighting with the other man on top of Bourdukofsky, according to the charges.

After they were separated by onlookers, Bourdukofsky began walking away, then turned and started shooting at people behind the Pioneer Bar, the charges say. As onlookers ran away, the man was shot and Bourdukofsky walked toward him while firing more shots, the charges say. The man fell and Bourdukofsky kept shooting before heading north toward Third Avenue, the charges say.

Bourdukofsky’s condition wasn’t immediately clear on Sunday. In a written statement on Saturday, police said he’d been hospitalized in stable condition. “Witnesses pointed out a male to officers, indicating the man had been involved in the shooting that had just occurred,” police wrote. “Officers engaged the male, who was armed with a gun, near W 3rd Avenue and G Street. Two officers discharged their weapons, striking the adult male in the upper and lower body.”

Under the police department’s policy, the officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, and the state’s Office of Special Prosecutions will investigate.

On May 13, Anchorage police officers shot and killed a man outside a West Anchorage apartment building after they said he raised a gun at them. That shooting is under investigation and has been the source of controversy after a public video emerged and raised questions about whether the man was raising a weapon when he was shot. Police have declined to release body camera video from officers while the investigation is ongoing.