In an unusual alert to the public Tuesday, the Anchorage Police Department warned people to be careful while out late at night and early in the morning, noting five recent violent deaths happened during those times.
Anchorage has seen 25 homicides so far this year — not including two officer-involved shootings — the same number APD reported for all of 2015.
“Unfortunately, people are making the choice to use violence to solve their problems instead of words, that’s really what we’re seeing,” said APD spokesperson Renee Oistad.
Of the 25 homicides, police haven’t charged a suspect in 12. And in a unique case, they’ve charge one suspect but are still looking for others.
Of the 25 victims, 13 were between the ages of 17 and 25. And in nine of those cases, no charges have been filed against a suspect.
When asked if APD is considering the possibility of a serial offender, Oistad said, “Right now we don’t have anything to connect the unsolved crimes. We’re going to look of course at which crimes were committed by which people, if they’re related, if they’re not. Obviously those are all things we’re going to look into.”
They’re now warning people to be careful if they’re going to be in isolated areas like parks and bike paths at night, and suggest traveling in groups with friends.
“With any crime, regardless of what it is, generally speaking, night time is more dangerous than day time,” Oistad said. “It just is because night time offers more cover, obviously the darkness.”
KTVA 11′s Daniella Rivera can be reached via email or on Facebook and Twitter.
