Eyewitness recounts deadly police shooting after burglary investigation turns fatal

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A witness is sharing new details about the moments leading up to a fatal officer-involved shooting Thursday afternoon outside a south Anchorage toy store.

Derrick White told Alaska’s News Source he had arrived at the Carrs grocery store parking lot on Huffman Road just before 1:40 p.m. when he noticed a heavy police presence beginning to form. White said an officer initially approached him and mentioned they were looking for a stolen blue Kia Rio.

Moments later, White watched as multiple officers circled the lot, ran license plates, and entered the store.

Within minutes, the situation escalated.

“Two of them went in one door, another one went through the door to the right of me,” White said. “Shortly after ... officers started running back to their car and then they took off. And shortly — maybe a few seconds later, maybe not even a minute — that’s when you heard the gunshot.”

White described hearing two distinct gunshots echo across the area just seconds apart.

“You heard, pow. And then a few seconds later, you heard another shot, pow,” White said. “And that’s when I asked the officer, was that gunshots? And he confirmed that it was gunshots.”

White said he then drove around toward Industry Way, where police had swarmed the area in front of Over the Rainbow Toys. There, White saw first responders administering chest compressions to the suspect on the ground.

During a press briefing late Thursday, Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case confirmed the incident originated around 10:05 a.m. with a reported burglary at a business along Lore Road. Case said investigators utilized surveillance footage from the burglary location and from inside Carrs to track the suspect, who had reportedly fled out the back doors of the grocery store.

According to Case, an officer found the suspect on foot in the 12000 block of Industry Way around 1:40 p.m. A brief physical struggle ensued, during which the suspect took out a gun and fired a single shot, missing officers.

A second arriving officer then fired one round, striking the suspect. Despite immediate life-saving efforts by police and medics, the person was pronounced dead at the scene.

No officers were injured. Case confirmed the encounter was captured on police body-worn and dash camera video.

Police have not yet publicly identified the deceased suspect or named the business targeted in the initial burglary. APD plans to hold an updated press conference next week to release additional findings from the investigation.

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