24 November 2014

What The ..??

APD investigates Sunday morning shots-fired reports

Anchorage police responded to nearly half a dozen incidents involving shots fired early Sunday, with officers using riot gear to disperse a 200-person Downtown block party and finding a pool of blood near a gas station.


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APD spokeswoman Anita Shell said police don’t believe any of the five separate incidents are related.

The series of reports began with a 2:30 a.m. shots-fired call from the vicinity of 3rd Avenue and E Street. As officers arrived, they noticed an “unsanctioned street party” near the intersection of 4th Avenue and D Street.

[snip] “A Cadillac Escalade was parked in the area with music blaring as about 200 people took to the streets dancing and shouting,” Shell wrote in a two-page statement on the calls. “When officers told the vehicle owner to turn off the music, the crowd became unruly toward police.”

Shell said the group ultimately forced APD to issue a request for backup, summoning all officers except those assigned to Eagle River.

  • At 4 a.m. officers headed to a second call at the College Gate neighborhood, after a pair of homes were struck by gunfire in a two-block area.
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  • Seven minutes after the College Gate call, police were informed of a disturbance with shots fired in the Spenard area, near the intersection of Wyoming and Oregon Drives.
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  • At 4:37 a.m., officers received a report from Downtown of blood and glass in an alley behind a Chevron gas station at 6th Avenue’s intersection with Ingra Street.
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  • Less than an hour later, at 5:15 a.m., police received a report from a local hospital of a man with an apparent gunshot wound to his hand he claimed had been inflicted by a nail gun earlier in the morning.

I don't know what was going on, but it sounds like several (if not all) of the events involved the same group of people.

We applaud the APD for its carefully-measured response: they took care to protect themselves and others, but were able to bring things back under control without the use of deadly force. Well done, officers!

4 comments:

ProudHillbilly said...

Yow. Sounds like a college town on steroids...

Rev. Paul said...

PH - Anchorage is a college town. It's just an unusual number of incidents - this is like a whole summer's worth in one night.

Teresa said...

The anarchists have come to town. That's a bit suspicious. I hope the response to it all has been enough to keep them from deciding to cause more trouble.

Rev. Paul said...

Teresa, it's possible that you're right - it might even be the pro-weed activists who came for the primary election & decided not to leave.