Anchorage teen approached police ‘with a knife in her hand’ before she was shot and killed by officer, chief says

The 16-year-old girl shot and killed by police last week was holding a knife at or near “her leg level” when the officer opened fire, the Anchorage police chief said during a media briefing Monday.

Chief Sean Case said nine people were inside the apartment when Easter Leafa was shot. She had been sitting outside on a porch attached to the living room when officers approached her, he said.

Case did not say if Leafa threatened officers or where the knife was pointed when she was shot.

During Monday’s briefing, the chief described the knife Leafa was holding as being similar to a steak knife. In a subsequent email, police spokeswoman Renee Oistad clarified that the knife had a blade roughly 7 inches long.

Leafa’s death has prompted community alarm and drawn scrutiny to the police department. Hundreds of people gathered at different events over the weekend to honor her life and call for justice.

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and Case announced a series of reforms aimed at reducing the number of shootings in Anchorage. Case on Monday said several of those efforts have been underway since he stepped into the role in July. The president of the police union has pushed back on the proposals, and said he is “dismayed by what city leaders have said and implied over the past few days.”

Six people have been shot by Anchorage police during the last three months. Four have died and two were wounded.

Case on Monday said the police department had completed interviews with all involved parties and were reviewing evidence before Leafa’s case is turned over to the state Office of Special Prosecutions for review. He did not say if Officer Alexander Roman, who fired the fatal shots at Leafa, made a statement as part of the investigation.

The incident began around 11:30 p.m. Aug. 13, when police responded to the Greenbriar Apartments on the 4800 block of East 43rd Avenue after a 911 caller reported that her sister, Leafa, was threatening to stab her with a knife, Case said.

“The argument was over the older sister not doing what the younger sister wanted her to do,” he said.

Leafa’s sister identified her and told dispatchers that she was 16, Case said. She also said Leafa had left the apartment with a knife, he said. When officers arrived, they began looking for Leafa, but two of them contacted the occupants of the apartment and learned she had returned home, Case said.

When police entered the apartment, they spent several minutes trying to get numerous family members to go to a bedroom so they could isolate Leafa and contact her, he said.

Leafa was seated on the back porch with a blanket covering her when the two primary officers opened the screen door, Case said.

“The officers’ instructions were for her to show her open empty hands,” Oistad wrote in the email Monday. “She stood up and approached the officers, with a knife in her hand, on her own accord.”

Roman was armed with a handgun and the other officer was armed with a less-lethal projectile, according to Case.

Leafa stood up, took the blanket off, turned around and “approached the officers with the knife approximately at her leg level,” Case said. Roman fired three shots and the other officer fired one less-lethal round, Case said.

Leafa was brought to a hospital, where she was declared dead, police said.

Case declined to describe in what direction the knife was pointed, or whether Leafa had threatened officers.

“I think we’ll wait until later when there’s a video release, so that you can see,” he said. “The best description I can give is that Easter had the knife in her right hand, she had it a little higher than like, leg height as she walked toward the officers in a confined space.”

Family members have told Alaska’s News Source that Leafa, who would’ve started her junior year of high school last week, moved to Anchorage in recent months from American Samoa with hopes of pursuing a better education. They said previously that she was still learning English, and that after officers responded to the apartment that night, her family tried to ask police if they could speak with Leafa to calm her down, but were told no.

Case on Monday said he was grateful to the Polynesian community for “starting the peaceful healing process.” He and LaFrance spoke Saturday at a march for Leafa that began outside the police headquarters.

“I cannot take away the pain that an officer-involved shooting causes this department, our community and especially Easter’s family,” Case said. “I can ensure that we will constantly monitor what we do to make sure that we provide the best services for this community, for officer safety as well as the community. I do not expect that those that are hurt, those that are angry, scared and skeptical, to change their view today because of what I said today or what we said last week.”