Anchorage orders outside police use-of-force review after sixth officer-involved shooting this year

An Anchorage Police Department officer's shooting of a person on Debarr Road on Thursday was the sixth officer-involved shooting in the city this year.

Anchorage will bring in a third-party investigator and form a community advisory committee to examine police use of force, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's office said Thursday. The municipality said the outside reviewer's analysis will not be limited to what is legally permissible, a broader scope than the prosecutorial question state investigators typically answer.

The shooting happened Thursday at about 1:23 p.m., when APD said officers responded to reports of shots fired in the 7000 block of Debarr Road. Officers located the person in the 6000 block. One officer took position to make contact, then fired, striking the person, according to the department. Officers began lifesaving measures at the scene. The person was taken to a local hospital and is listed as stable. No APD officers were injured.

This account comes from APD's own incident update.

The state will decide first whether the shooting was lawful. APD spokesperson Adam Nicely said in the department's update that, per policy, the state's Office of Special Prosecutions will review the officer's use of force and determine whether it was justified. Nicely said APD Internal Affairs will review the officer's actions for policy violations after that review concludes, and that the prosecutors' findings will be available for public review. APD said the officers involved will be placed on four days of administrative leave, standard department practice. APD's update did not say when the review of the Debarr Road shooting will be finished.

Speaking to an Anchorage Assembly committee in June about an earlier officer-involved shooting, community advocate Jamie Lopez said: "This is sort of escalating away in this town where you decided to make everybody a criminal for everything, and people are not getting help. They are not getting support."