Anchorage police shoot carjacking suspect after East 37th Avenue standoff

Anchorage police say the man officers shot on East 37th Avenue on Sunday had, hours earlier, beaten a man in his 70s unconscious with a handgun and stolen his truck at gunpoint.

The department laid out the case at a Monday briefing. This is its account; the officers have not been interviewed, and no one outside the department has given a version of what happened.

Police say the gunman demanded the older man's truck keys near 22nd and Glacier around noon. "The suspect fired a single round and then used the firearm to strike the victim multiple times in the head and face, rendering him unconscious," a police spokesperson said. The man came to as his pockets were emptied and watched the suspect drive off in his truck.

Officers found the truck, then the house the suspect had gone to, on East 37th Avenue with close to a dozen people inside. They worked the scene for about six hours, seeking warrants and trying to talk the occupants out, before the man stepped outside just before 8 p.m. When an officer ordered him to stop and raise his hands, the spokesperson said, "the suspect produced a handgun, pointed it in the direction of the officers," and four officers fired. Both the man shot and the carjacking victim are expected to survive.

The department says the man in custody will be charged in both the carjacking and the shooting, with more expected at a briefing next week. Body-camera footage exists but won't be released yet because it's tied to the prosecution.

It was the department's eighth officer-involved shooting this year. Asked whether recommendations from a recent outside review of APD's use of force applied here, the spokesperson said they did not, pointing to the hours of negotiation and the less-lethal weapons on scene.