A 16-year-old girl was shot and killed late Tuesday night by Anchorage police officers responding to a report of a domestic dispute in East Anchorage, police said. She was holding a knife and did not obey orders to drop it, police said.

Family members identified the girl on Wednesday as Easter Leafa, who they said came to Alaska from American Samoa earlier this year.

She turned 16 in June. A video on Facebook showed her celebrating with family members and a cake with sprinkles.

Leafa is the sixth person shot by Anchorage police since mid-May, and the fourth killed, marking a series of police shootings unprecedented in the city’s recent history.

According to the police description of the incident, officers received a report of an altercation between family members at the Greenbriar apartment complex in the 4800 block of East 43rd Avenue at the corner of Tudor Road shortly after 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

A 911 caller said her sister threatened her with a knife, Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case said Wednesday morning at a news conference broadcast on social media. Officers who entered the affected apartment “gave the individual some commands,” he said. “The individual approached them while still holding the knife,” he said.

One officer then fired several shots and a second fired a non-lethal 40 mm projectile, Case said.

The identity of the officers has not yet been determined.

Leafa was struck in the upper and lower body, police said. Officers rendered “medical aid” and the injured teen was taken to an Anchorage hospital, where she was pronounced dead, Case said.

No one else was injured, police said.

The shooting sparked a wave of disbelief and shock on social media, with Anchorage city leaders also raising questions about the rising number of deaths from police shootings.

“This is a tragic incident, there is no other way to describe it,” Case said at the press conference. “As police officers, we strive to protect human life. And when we fail to achieve that goal, it can only be described as tragic.”

Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said in a statement that the public and family needed more information about what happened.

“My deepest sympathies go out to the family as they grieve after last night’s incident,” Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said in a statement. “The loss of a child is devastating and 16 is too young to leave this world. Last night we lost a member of our community and we grieve together with the family.”

“We all have a right – and a need – to understand what happened last night,” LaFrance wrote. “Everyone has the right to feel safe in our community, and transparency and trust in law enforcement are paramount to that.”

Anchorage Assembly member Daniel Volland wrote to Case asking about police de-escalation efforts.

“I am shocked that this series of police killings continues,” he wrote. “What de-escalation training does your department have? Does the council need to fund special training?”

He said he had not received a response from the department as of Wednesday evening.

(A look at police shootings in Anchorage in 2024)

The shooting occurred in a second-floor apartment in a large complex just off Tudor Road, east of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium complex.

Leafa moved to Alaska from American Samoa just a few months ago, her sister said in an interview with Alaska’s News Source that was live-streamed by a family member and shared widely on social media. As of Wednesday evening, it had been viewed more than 260,000 times.

She spends most of her time with her family, her sisters said. She is still learning English, they said.

Her family members described police showing up at the apartment and a series of events that quickly escalated to police shooting. The police officers, Leafa’s sisters said, did not know her name or that several other children were in the apartment. They said they tried to ask police if they could speak to Leafa to calm her down, but were told that was not possible.

“You could talk to her,” one said. “She’ll drop it. She’ll come to any minute.”

A sister said she saw what happened next: Leafa held the knife but did not point it at police, she said. She was told to put it down and made a “tiny little movement,” her sister said. “They shot her three times.”

Leafa didn’t understand what was happening, family members said. They asked why she wasn’t shocked with a Taser so the knife would fall.

“She just moved here. The system here works very differently than at home. The fact that they attacked her like that and shot her like that is heartbreaking,” her sister said in the livestream.

Family members said they wanted to see the body camera footage.

The officers involved had not been interviewed as of Wednesday morning, Case said, adding that he could not comment on their individual decisions to use lethal or less lethal force.

“Typically, our training is that if you have a non-lethal projectile or a non-lethal tool like a Taser, for example, we always have a lethal projectile with us,” Case said. “So you’ll see an officer carrying both a pistol or a rifle or a lethal projectile and a non-lethal projectile. And each officer makes a decision as to which tool they carry depending on the circumstances.”

Leafa would have started her penultimate year of high school at Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School this week.

“She was a 16-year-old who came to the United States looking for a good school and a future, and now she’s gone,” her sister said.

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