Man shot by police in East Anchorage after he fired at them, APD says

Police shot a man early Monday in East Anchorage, striking him twice, after he fired a shotgun at two officers, the police department said. It was the fifth incident in the past two months in which Anchorage police officers shot someone.

The man was hospitalized with serious injuries.

Police responded around 3:30 a.m. to a report of a disturbance between two people that resulted in a shot being fired at the Circle K filling station in the 1400 block of South Bragaw Street, Chief Sean Case said during a brief news conference on Monday.

“Almost immediately after arriving at the scene, an officer advised at least one shot had been fired at the police,” the police department said in a prepared statement.

After a confrontation, two officers fired their weapons and the man was struck in the lower and upper body. No officers were injured, police said.

Evidence markers dotted parking lots of closed businesses on Bragaw Street near 15th and 16th avenues on Monday morning.

Criminal charges had not been filed by Monday, but there may be additional updates this week, Case said. The department will hold another news conference on Thursday to provide additional information about the shooting, he said.

“I won’t get into too many details about the shooting that happened this morning, just because we are still reviewing all of the information that’s coming in,” Case said. “We have multiple witnesses or people that were in the area that we’re currently still interviewing, so I don’t want to put out some of the information until we know exactly some of the details.”

[Trooper fatally shoots man reportedly wielding harpoon at Kenai Peninsula dipnetting site]

This marks the fifth time since mid-May that Anchorage police officers have shot someone. The four prior shootings left three people dead and one hospitalized.

Body-camera footage of those shootings has not been released, despite mounting pressure from the public. The shootings mark the first to be captured on video since officers began wearing cameras earlier this year. The SWAT officers involved in a fatal standoff with a 58-year-old woman at the end of last month were not wearing cameras.

[Related: In a moment, an emotional night turned deadly: June 3 Anchorage police shooting was 6th death since 2020]

Case, who stepped into the role of chief last week and has yet to be confirmed by the Assembly, said he plans to change how the department releases body-camera footage of police shootings. The municipal legal department is still reviewing the changes, he said.

The revised policy will provide a timeline for when footage will be released and any exceptions will be explained to the public, Case said. He did not provide specifics about how long he expects it to take for footage to be released.

“Several different entities are involved when we release, so it’s not 100% on our timeline — sometimes we’re taking into consideration the prosecution of multiple criminal cases,” Case said. “It’s important to remember when our officers are involved in a shooting, they’re investigated criminally. If the subject that was shot survives, that person may also be investigated for a crime.”