Man charged in Centennial Park shooting brought long criminal history with him

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A 32-year-old man charged in Wednesday night’s officer-involved shooting at a Northeast Anchorage campground had previous felony charges and served time in jail, according to charging documents.

Iese Gali Jr. had four prior felony convictions on his record, according to documents that charge Gali with first-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, third-degree assault and third-degree misconduct involving weapons.

Gali is currently hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries stemming from Wednesday night’s shooting at the Centennial Park campground, which has been housing homeless citizens since late June.

The shooting left both Gali and an Anchorage Police Department officer injured. The officer’s injuries were also non-life-threatening. Gali has had bail set at $1 million.

The charging documents show that Gali was charged in May 2019 as a felon in possession of a firearm. Gali was sentenced to two years in prison but released from custody on Jan. 12, 2021.

Six days later, Gali was issued an arrest warrant with bail to be set on first-degree assault, fourth-degree assault and reckless endangerment charges in connection to a shooting and beating of another person. He was arrested on Jan. 26 with bail set at $2,500 by District Court Judge Michael Logue.

Gali’s defense team was denied requests for lower bail twice, first in February 2021 and again in August 2021, with the prosecution arguing that his criminal history demonstrated a danger to society.

“The State of Alaska opposed the bail release proposal arguing that (Iese Gali Jr.’s) criminal history demonstrated he was a continuing danger to the community, that he faced a presumptive term of incarceration between 15 and 20 years if convicted of the indicted offense of first-degree assault, and the proposal incentivized (Gali) to abscond,” the document says.

The charging document continues by saying Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson disagreed with the other judges who had previously set bail for Gali and lowered it to $1,000 and ordered house arrest with an electronic monitoring device, along with other conditions. The documents say Peterson cited a “Court of Appeals order demanding a trial court judge reconsider bail in a violent criminal offender’s sexual assault case, Sergie v. State.”

Gali was released from jail on Dec. 28, 2021, after posting the $1,000 bail three weeks earlier, according to the documents, but on March 8, 2022, the pretrial enforcement division filed a complaint that Gali violated his terms of release, saying he had cut off his ankle monitoring device and left his approved residence without permission. As a response, Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby issued a $5,000 release warrant for Gali’s arrest.

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