City releases outside review of Easter Leafa shooting by Anchorage police

The municipality on Thursday released a third-party review into the shooting death of Easter Leafa, a 16-year-old high school student killed by Anchorage police officers in August.

The review recommended changes to the way the Anchorage Police Department operates, ranging from call dispatching to supervision to training.

But a summary made available to the public stopped short of publicly disclosing findings about whether the officers involved in the shooting violated policy.

The review was part of a package of promises made by Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and police Chief Sean Case in the aftermath of the Aug. 13 death of Leafa, a teenager who had recently moved to Alaska from American Samoa and was about to start her junior year of high school.

Her death, which came during a series of high-profile shootings by police, spurred demonstrations and focused public attention on the department’s use-of-force policies.

Anchorage police released body-camera footage in late September that showed the response to Leafa’s home, their tense interactions with family members and ultimately her death. The footage showed Leafa, holding a knife at her side, being shot by an officer while her family members looked on.

Darryl Thompson, an attorney for the Leafa family, on Thursday said the new report was critical of several aspects of the police response, including chain of command and supervision of officers, that he considered crucial to how the call unfolded, leaving Leafa dead.

“What was really clear to me from watching the video was (the officers) flung open the door and they had no plan,” Thompson said.

“Anyone who has seen the video knows it was a tragedy that could have been avoided,” he said. “I think the city recognizes mistakes were made. I don’t think they’ll probably say it quite like that.”

The city hired Christopher Darcy, a private policing consultant and former Las Vegas police officer, to “conduct a critical incident review” and “supervise an investigation” of the incident in which police shot Leafa, according to a statement from the city Thursday.

Leafa’s family participated in the investigation, according to the municipality. The city paid Darcy about $45,000 for the work, including site visits to Anchorage.

The review released Thursday included only Darcy’s policy recommendations and conclusions. Access to the full report has been “strictly limited” because it includes confidential personnel information, said municipal attorney Eva Gardner.

Darcy, reached by phone, said he could not comment beyond the published review.

The recommendations include making the department’s supervision policy clearer and more straightforward for chain-of-command purposes, new protocols for responding to a person with a deadly weapon, broadening de-escalation training, more less-lethal use-of-force options for officers, and better training for officers to communicate with “a diverse community.”

Most of the recommendations overlap with conclusions the department reached in its own internal review of 15 years of use-of-force incidents, released in November, particularly the need for better supervision for patrol officers out on high-risk calls.

The police department had already identified some of the areas Darcy’s recommendations focused on as needing change, Case said Thursday.

“It’s nice to see this is kind of a confirmation we are on the right track,” he said. “Certainly in some areas we’ve got some room for improvement.”

Among those: more supervision and direct management of high-risk calls by sergeants and lieutenants, he said. “I think that’s the most important piece to these recommendations.”

Case said the department has already been emphasizing the need for a clear chain of command and the involvement of more experienced supervisors.

In August, Leafa’s death became a catalyst for protests over a record number of Anchorage police shootings, and calls for reform.

Family members have said Leafa, who had moved from American Samoa to Alaska in the months prior to the shooting, was not fully fluent in English.

One of Leafa’s sisters called 911 on Aug. 13 and reported the 16-year-old girl had threatened her with a knife. Two officers arrived at the family apartment with guns drawn.

Leafa’s family told the officers she was outside on the balcony. They could be heard in the footage repeatedly trying to talk with the officers about what happened and questioning how police planned to approach the teen. After corralling the family into a bedroom, police could be seen opening a sliding glass door and confronting Leafa.

She stood up, holding a kitchen knife down at her side, and took three steps forward as officers yelled at her to drop the knife. Officer Alexander Roman fired at her as she crossed into the apartment from the balcony.

The state Office of Special Prosecutions deemed Roman was justified in using deadly force and would not face criminal charges in Leafa’s death.

Rich Curtner, chair of the Alaska Black Caucus’ Justice Committee, said Thursday that he viewed the review as a commendable first step toward making needed changes to police department policies, but that it did not go far enough.

He described the review as vague and said he would like to see the police department and mayor’s office involve the community in conversations about how to make changes.

“I keep playing that bodycam tape over and over again in my mind, as anyone who’s seen it has ... We need some change that will prevent that from happening again,” Curtner said.

The city is planning another, broader third-party inquiry into APD’s “policies, training, tactics and supervision as they relate to use of force, de-escalation, and cultural awareness,” according to the municipality’s statement. The city published a request for proposals for the review, which Gardner said could culminate in a more detailed public report.