Anchorage orders outside review of police shootings after Debarr Road incident

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 announcement follows an Anchorage Police Department officer's shooting of a person on Debarr Road and five other officer-involved shootings so far this year. 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 that prompted the announcement happened Thursday, Aug. 13, 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 available material includes no statement from the person who was shot or any independent witness.

The state will decide first whether the shooting was lawful. "Per policy, the state's Office of Special Prosecutions (OSP) will review the officer's use of force and determine whether it was justified," APD spokesperson Adam Nicely said in the department's update. 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.

Residents have pressed the city on the pattern behind those reviews. Speaking to an Anchorage Assembly committee in June about an earlier officer-involved shooting, community advocate Jamie Lopez said: "Yeah, this is tough to watch. So anyways, the officer involved shooting, this is regrettable. Yeah. 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."

The shooting is one of several in Anchorage this year. Alaska News previously covered the May 19 shooting near Bragaw Street and Reka Drive, in which three APD officers fired and 33-year-old Emil McCord died. APD's update did not say when the review of the Debarr Road shooting will be finished. APD held a news conference on the incident Thursday.