16-year-old girl is sixth person shot by Anchorage police in 3 months
A 16-year-old girl, who police say was armed with a knife, was shot dead by a police officer on Tuesday night. She is the sixth person shot by police in three months and the fourth to die in the process.
Anchorage police have shot and killed a 16-year-old girl who they say was armed with a knife, making her the sixth person shot and killed by police in three months and the fourth person to die in the shooting.
Officers were dispatched to a dispute between two family members around 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The caller told police that her sister had threatened her with a knife, Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case said at a press conference on Wednesday.
When police arrived, she gave the girl “some commands,” but she approached officers with the knife in her hand, prompting a single officer to fire several shots, Case said. A second officer fired one shot with a “less lethal projectile,” he said.
Officers treated the teen for medical reasons and transported her to a local hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries. According to an Anchorage Police Department press release, she was shot in the “upper and lower body.”
Case said the 16-year-old had started her penultimate year of high school on Thursday. The identity of the teenager will not be released due to her age, police said.
“This is a tragic incident, there is no other way to describe it,” Case said. “As police officers, we strive to protect human life. And when we fail to achieve that goal, it can only be described as tragic.”
Family members identified the slain teenager as Easter Leafa and told Alaska’s News Source that she had just celebrated her 16th birthday last month.
“They took my girl’s life,” her mother, also named Easter Leafa, told the outlet.
USA TODAY has reached out to the Anchorage School District and the mayor’s office for comment.
Teenager is one of six people shot by Anchorage police within three months
Tuesday’s shooting was the sixth officer-involved shooting in three months, according to Case. Four of the six people shot by police died, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
“We are committed to continuing to review our training, tactics and oversight of such incidents to try to prevent future officer-involved shootings,” Case said.
The Daily News reported that Case had previously stated that the high number of officer-involved shootings this year was an anomaly and that the department normally averages three such shootings each year.
A second press conference is scheduled for Monday afternoon, where Case will provide an update on the case, which was recorded by a police body camera.
They have yet to interview the officer who shot Easter. They report that all the information they have at this point is based on the details reported to the dispatch center.
Girl’s family demands justice
Easter’s sister, Faialofa Dixon, told Alaska’s News Source that one of the officers drew his gun when he arrived at the family’s home.
“She was a minor, they should have asked questions when they came in,” she said. “Instead, they came in prepared and looked like they were ready to gun her down.”
Dixon said Easter and her mother moved from American Samoa to Alaska about five months ago and reunited with a large extended family.
Easter was “just a 16-year-old who came to the United States to find a good school and a future, and now she’s gone,” she said.
“We want justice for our sister and we need answers,” Dixon said. “We need the body cam that they had. No cuts. The whole camera. All the videos. This is very heartbreaking, not only for us but for our sisters and our mother who witnessed the whole thing.”
