Crime & Courts

Driver charged with manslaughter in East Anchorage shooting

An argument between two groups of people in the parking lot of an East Anchorage restaurant Sunday ended in a fatal shooting, Anchorage police say.

The encounter near East Tudor Road involved people who did not know one another, police said. Javon M Hill, 23, was charged Monday with felony manslaughter. Police on Tuesday identified the victim as 43-year-old Franklin Stevens-McConkey.

One of the groups was walking down Dale Street when they encountered people from the other group in a vehicle leaving the Uncle Joe’s Pizzeria parking lot on the northeast corner of the street near Tudor Road, according to police and a criminal complaint filed Monday.

Hill, the driver of the black Hyundai Accent, later told police he was picking up coworkers at the restaurant when he had to drive around three people on foot, who yelled that he almost hit them, according to a sworn affidavit filed by Anchorage police officer Brendan Lee.

Surveillance video shows Hill appearing to fire a gun after what began as a verbal altercation that turned physical, according to the affidavit.

Hill, in an interview with police, said he grabbed a handgun from the car door pocket “for protection” when one person approached his window but that encounter ended without incident, Lee wrote.

As Hill pulled out, he said, another person in the group threw a traffic cone at the car, the affidavit said. Hill said he got out with his weapon at his side but when the man became hostile, he pointed the gun at him, it said.

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The man lunged at him and another, larger man in the group “came at him too” so Hill fired a shot at the bigger man’s chest, he said, and then fired two more shots when the man continued to push him against the car, Lee wrote.

Officers called to the scene around 10:40 p.m. found Stevens-McConkey with a gunshot wound to his upper body, police said. He was transported to a hospital where he died, they said.

Hill was questioned at the police department by detectives and then charged with manslaughter, police said.

Anyone with information about the incident who has not spoken to police was asked to call dispatch at 311, option 1, or 907-786-8900, option 0.

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