Three police shootings in three weeks no sign of increased crime

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson said the fact that Anchorage police officers shot someone while responding to a crime report for the third time in three weeks is not a sign of an increasing trend of violence in Anchorage.

Anchorage police said Monday’s latest incident – the second shooting in just three days – occurred when their officers shot and killed a man who they said pulled out a gun during an altercation Monday outside the Anchorage Senior Activity Center.

“Three shootings in a few weeks, that’s a challenge,” Bronson said. “But incidents like this have happened before.”

Speaking to Alaska’s News Source in his first interview since losing re-election, Bronson also claimed, “Three weeks ago, you wouldn’t have asked about the violence because serious crime has gone down.”

Hours before two men were arraigned on Tuesday morning for shootings, Bronson also told Alaska’s News Source that he continued to have confidence in the work of Anchorage Police Chief-designate Bianca Cross.

“We should always be concerned about violence that happens in our city,” Bronson said. “I spoke to the chief here 30 minutes ago. She has that under control, the process of investigating shootings – and I have a lot of confidence in her, she has a lot of experience, so I think she’ll do a good job of it.”

Tuesday afternoon, 22-year-old Kaleb Bourdukofsky and 25-year-old Savon Berry were arraigned on gun charges in an Anchorage courtroom.

In a statement about the June 3 incident, police said officers responded to a report of shots fired near 19th Avenue and Karluk Street around 9:30 p.m. A passerby identified two men in the senior center parking lot as being involved in the shooting, police said.

One man with a gun complied with officers’ commands and was arrested, police said. The second man did not comply, police said. Officers deployed a police dog against the second man, but he reportedly pulled out a gun and continued to ignore several police requests to “drop it.”

According to APD, three officers then fired their weapons and the man died at the scene.

The shooting came days after police said they shot Bourdukofsky after he attempted to evade arrest after shooting 25-year-old Diego Joe following a fight outside a downtown bar early Saturday morning, according to APD.

Bourdukofsky was charged with murder, misconduct with a weapon and assault in connection with Joe’s death. According to a criminal complaint, police shot him as he tried to flee.

“This man ran away from a shooting with a gun in his hand,” said Bianca Cross, police chief-designate of the Anchorage Police Department.

He remains in hospital and did not appear in court on Tuesday.

On May 13, four police officers shot and killed 34-year-old Kristopher Handy outside an Anchorage apartment, according to APD. Footage of the shooting, taken from a nearby apartment and later shared online, raised questions about the police’s account of the altercation.

Last weekend, a large group of people marched to the Anchorage Police Department headquarters to protest the decision not to release bodycam footage.

Handy’s family claims he did not point his gun at police, as Anchorage’s police chief-elect told the public. Instead, surveillance videos appear to contradict whether he raised the weapon.

Although city law allows Cross to release the police bodycam footage, Bronson agrees with her decision.

“Just because there is a public outcry doesn’t mean we have to comply, because we have to do the right thing and that’s what we’re going to do,” Bronson said.

Mayor-elect Suzanne LaFrance, who is set to be sworn in on July 1, previously told Alaska’s News Source that because she is not yet part of the administration, she has not been fully informed about APD’s ongoing decision not to release officers’ bodycam video of the shooting on cell phones.

“One of the first things is that as I monitor the situation, I would like to have comprehensive information about it before I make any decisions,” LaFrance said.

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