Chief says Anchorage police were informed of heightened risk with homicide suspect later shot by officer

Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case on Wednesday provided additional details about a police shooting last week that left a man wounded after an exchange of gunfire with an officer near Ship Creek.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday at police headquarters, Case said police have not yet publicly identified the man because he’s a suspect in an ongoing homicide investigation. Charges were not filed as of Wednesday against the man, who Case said is suspected of fatally shooting 48-year-old Carl Washington last week at a homeless camp near downtown.

Police had initially responded to a homeless camp located off a busy stretch of East Fifth Avenue near Karluk Street on the morning of Aug. 22 for a report of a shooting, and found Washington with a gunshot wound to his upper body, the department said. He died at the scene, according to police.

The department released a photo of a man they described as a suspect in the shooting and asked for the public’s help locating him. As the investigation continued, detectives determined the man’s name and received information “that this particular suspect was not going to get arrested without having a shootout with officers,” Case said during Wednesday’s briefing.

The department pulled back on search efforts involving patrol officers because of the heightened risk and called in an investigative support unit with specialized training used to resolve high-risk encounters, Case said.

On Friday, a woman called 911 on behalf of two homeless people who asked for help because they were being chased by someone who had a gun, according to Case. Responding officers talked with the caller when they arrived at the 200 block of Post Road and she pointed out the man she had seen chasing the people, he said.

The man rode away from officers on his bike when police confronted him, Case said. The officers caught up to the man, who then got off the bike, Case said. The officers noticed he had a gun and commanded him to drop it, but he instead fired a single round toward an officer and a civilian vehicle, Case said.

Officer Ryan Kelley fired five rounds and the man fell to the ground, Case said. The man then sat up and fired two more rounds, causing Kelley to fire five more shots, Case said.

The man was shot in the upper and lower body and was brought to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said. No one else was injured.

Two of the shots fired by the man struck an occupied civilian vehicle, Case said.

Case on Wednesday did not provide an update on the man’s condition.

This is the seventh time since mid-May that Anchorage police have shot someone. Four people have died, including a 16-year-old girl who was holding a knife when officers shot her earlier this month. Easter Leafa’s death prompted community anguish and alarm, and the string of shootings has brought added scrutiny to the police department.

In the wake of Leafa’s death, Case and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance announced a series of reforms, including the establishment of a community advisory committee and an outside review of department policies.

Case, during Wednesday’s briefing on the officer-involved shooting near Ship Creek, described some of the dangers officers routinely face and said they have only seconds to decide whether or not to fire in critical encounters. He described the officers in the department as his heroes.

“Once that decision is made, the officer doesn’t get to take that back,” he said. “Our officers replay this decision over and over for months and months following the officer-involved shootings — what they could have done to prepare themselves better, different tactics? Was it the right decision? They replay this over and over in their mind so they can perform the absolute best in that split second that they had to be involved in officer-involved shootings.”