The first bodycam footage to be released by Anchorage police is out. The reaction is mixed.

The Anchorage Police Department’s first-ever release of body-camera footage this week elicited a range of reactions, from appreciation that it was made available to criticism over the way it was edited.

The 10-minute video, released Wednesday, had more than 5,500 views as of Friday afternoon. It shows the events leading up to and after the fatal shooting of 34-year-old Kristopher Handy on May 13 at the West Anchorage apartment complex where he lived with his fiancee and multiple children.

The state Office of Special Prosecutions found the four officers who fired at Handy were legally justified in using deadly force, a finding challenged by attorneys representing family members.

Instead of raw body camera footage as some may have expected, the video of the shooting is a produced compilation of clips and audio from body cameras, 911 calls, dispatch communication with officers and surveillance footage from nearby apartments. A lieutenant narrates an account of the incident before footage rolls.

A few Anchorage Assembly members said they’d seen the footage. Member Kameron Perez-Verdia, co-chair of the city’s Public Health and Safety Committee, called the video “heartbreaking to watch.”

He thinks it’s fair for members of the public and Handy’s family to want all raw footage released, and for them to question the edited version. It’s all part of the learning process for the city, and the video is a good “first step,” he said.

Attorneys separately representing Handy’s fiancee and his parents and brother have said they believe the footage was edited to make Handy appear more menacing and make the police’s actions look justified. Anchorage police Chief Sean Case said in an interview this week that the department’s aim was to be neutral while providing the facts.

“I do think that Chief Case and the police department are trying to take a lot of information and put it into context and share the relevant footage so that we see what happened,” Perez-Verdia said. “But I also think it’s fair to question whether it is a true representation or not.”

Case, in an interview Thursday, said the department plans to release raw footage of the Handy shooting “as quickly as we can” after they release footage of a separate shooting next week.

He said the process to release footage is still evolving, and the department made the video with the aim of creating “a complete picture of what happened” in a way that would be understandable to the general public.

He said he expected most people would be satisfied with the release but understood there could still be calls for more footage to be released.

The format of the Handy shooting video was based on an outline created by Alaska State Troopers, Case said. The agencies looked to law enforcement departments across the country, including in Phoenix, as models for the videos, he said.

The Alaska Department of Public Safety last week released video footage of a man’s fatal shooting by a state trooper nine months ago at a Tok motel. The release marked the first time the agency proactively released video of an officer shooting, officials said.

‘Did he raise a gun or did he not raise a gun?’

The Anchorage police video, as well as the state’s investigation that found Handy “is not seen directly pointing the shotgun at the officers,” contradicts initial reports that Handy raised a long gun toward officers.

Concerns over the initial police statement have loomed over the shooting, Case said.

“And we were very clear and intentional about showing that piece of the video footage that showed (Handy) prior to the shooting, directly in front of him, so that the viewers could see, did he raise a gun or did he not raise a gun? And we’re not hiding it — it is what it is.”

On the video, Handy does not appear to raise the shotgun immediately before the officers begin to fire.

Attorney Mike Kramer — who is representing Handy’s fiancee, Harmony Stitt — and James Roberts, a Dallas-based attorney representing Handy’s parents and brother, both said in separate interviews that they believe the video APD released Wednesday skews viewers’ perspectives of the encounter by making Handy look dangerous. They took issue with the department adding in graphics and narration, and selecting specific videos while omitting other body camera or security footage that may have shown a different angle.

Rich Curtner, co-chair of the Alaska Black Caucus Justice Committee, which pushed for the release of the footage, said he appreciated the fact that Wednesday’s release included audio and clips of different videos, but the editing made him wonder what may have been missing or what could have been seen from other angles.

The release of the Handy footage follows a police department policy change last month. The policy calls for body-worn camera footage of shootings to be released within 45 days and allows families to view it after 14 days.

On Tuesday, the Anchorage Assembly unanimously approved an ordinance that requires the police department to have a policy for its body-worn cameras, and to follow that policy. Members added a clause requiring the policy to “ensure that the footage released is a fair, accurate, and thorough depiction of the critical incident.”

That language comes directly from the new policy. But there isn’t currently a specific public mechanism to ensure edited footage is an accurate depiction.

‘Different levels of trust’

Assembly member Felix Rivera said he believes releasing the full videos along with the narrated, edited version is the best way for the department to handle any public distrust and to be transparent and accountable.

“I can see some people thinking that it’s, sort of, APD trying to sell a specific story. Myself, I don’t necessarily see it that way, but I can see how some in the community might,” he said.

“People are coming at this from different perspectives, from different levels of trusting APD to not trusting APD to somewhere in the middle,” Rivera added.

He has questions about some of the editorial decisions the department made when producing the video. For example, police used a photo of Handy near the beginning of the video, “and it isn’t the most flattering,” Rivera said. The photo resembles a police mug shot.

“Why that particular picture of Kris Handy? When I know that there are other pictures of Kris out there in the public,” Rivera said.

Using photos like that will prompt questions about whether the department is trying to build a narrative that a person shot in a video is a “bad person,” he said.

It would be helpful for the department to include a public explanation of its editing choices, like why it might zoom in or add slow-motion, he said.

On Thursday, most Assembly members said they hadn’t yet watched the footage, and some — like Assembly Vice Chair Meg Zaletel — said they don’t plan to.

Zaletel said she wants to hear feedback from the public about the video, and hopes the city and APD will evaluate any concerns and whether the videos and process can be improved.

“I could judge it for myself, if I wanted to. But ultimately, this is supposed to be for public transparency, and they need to tell us, did it do what they were expecting or not?” Zaletel said. “And especially since it is the first one, and it is such a high-profile incident, I’m curious what they think.”

All eight Assembly members interviewed by the Daily News commended Case and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s administration for swiftly implementing a new policy with a clear, predictable timeline for footage release to the public, and to the families of those involved.

“For the public’s purposes, for the families’ purposes, it’s a good thing. For the community’s, even for APD’s purposes, it’s a good thing,” Assembly Chair Christopher Constant said.

Handy’s death marked the first of five shootings involving police since May.

Case said the department will continue releasing edited versions of shooting footage but in the future will also simultaneously release redacted raw footage from each officer’s camera.

The department plans to release footage next week of a June 3 fatal shooting, Case said. Tyler May, 21 was shot by three officers outside the Anchorage Senior Activities Center in June.