Anchorage police said they shot and killed a 16-year-old girl who approached officers with a knife just days before she was scheduled to start 11th grade at high school. A 911 caller reported her sister threatened her with a knife around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. Police said they arrived at the Greenbriar Apartments complex and repeatedly ordered Easter Leafa to drop the knife before approaching police, according to KTUU. One officer fired several shots while a second fired “one shot with a less lethal projectile” before Easter was pronounced dead at a hospital, said Police Chief Sean Case, who called it a tragedy.

According to AP, it is the police department’s sixth officer-involved shooting in three months. “As police officers, we strive to protect human life, and when we fail to achieve that goal, it can only be described as tragic,” Case said. A neighbor said she heard Easter’s family screaming after shots were fired. “We all started crying and tried to run to her,” a relative told KTUU. The newspaper reported that Easter and her mother moved to Alaska from American Samoa about five months ago to join her extended family in search of a better life.

Family members now question why deadly force was necessary. They say Easter retreated to a balcony and covered herself with a blanket when police arrived. But officers “came in ready and looked like they were going to gun her down,” Sister Faialofa Dixon told KTUU. “The loss of a child is devastating,” Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said, adding, “We grieve with the family.” Case said it was up to officers to decide what means to use “based on the circumstances before them.” He added that the department would “continue to review our training, our tactics, as well as our oversight in incidents like this to try to prevent future police-involved shootings.” The officers were wearing body cameras, though it’s unclear when the footage might be released. (More stories about police shootings.)