Anchorage police said a man was shot and killed by officers Tuesday afternoon after pointing a gun at numerous drivers and a school bus in a heavily trafficked area of East Tudor Road.
The man, who was on foot and alone, was shot by an officer around 1:20 p.m. around the 4000 block of Piper Street and East Tudor, police said.
Just a few minutes prior to the shooting, the department received at least 13 calls about a man in dark clothes with a weapon, police Chief Sean Case said during a briefing Tuesday afternoon.
Some callers said the man was pointing the gun at other people, others that he was pointing it at them, Case said.
Some described him as putting the gun in and out of his waistband or stepping into traffic, he said. “At one point in time, he stepped in front of a school bus and tried to stop the school bus.”
Police later learned there were no children on the bus, Case said.
At least one person said the man pointed the weapon directly at him as he drove by, he said.
The first officers got to the area in about three minutes and saw the man on the south side of Tudor Road, Case said. As they started giving the man instructions, the chief said, he started walking across the road and toward another officer just arriving at the scene on the other side of Tudor.
That officer issued a series of commands and ordered him to take his hand off the gun, Case said. “And shortly after providing that command, the officer fired approximately five rounds.”
He estimated the officer was “15 feet or less” from the man, who was shot in the middle of Tudor Road. The incident unfolded too rapidly to use non-lethal methods, Case said.
Asked if the man pointed his weapon at the officer, Case said the body-worn camera worn by the officer was blocked by his rifle and so doesn’t show “exactly what the subject is doing.”
The shooting falls under the department’s footage release policy and will be made available to the public, the chief said.
A portion of Tudor Road was closed Tuesday afternoon.
The shooting was the third involving Anchorage police this year.
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Last month, an Anchorage officer shot and wounded a man suspected to be involved in a robbery in Midtown on Jan. 7. Less than 24 hours later, two officers shot and wounded a man as he opened fire on a homeowner at a duplex in the Government Hill neighborhood.
Officers shot eight people last year in Anchorage. Five of them died.
Asked to address the spate of shootings involving officers on Tuesday, Case referenced steps being taken in the community and by the municipality.
He also said the issue goes beyond officer-involved shootings to other issues including vulnerable populations and “violent crime in the city” that’s been an ongoing challenge for several years.