A fight at a massive high school party led to one person being sent to the hospital with a gunshot wound early Tuesday.
The Anchorage Police Department said it happened around 2:30 a.m. on the 1600 block of Tammy Avenue in south Anchorage. Jacob Noblett, who attended the party, said there were at least 100 people there, and many of them are students at South Anchorage High School, which, like other Anchorage schools, is currently on spring break.
Noblett took cover by locking himself in a bathroom when the shooting started.
“It took everybody by surprise,” he said.
The fight started when an uninvited group arrived at the party. At least two people fired weapons.
“It was really sketchy when the door was locked, too, because they were grabbing the handle and they were still shooting,” said Noblett.
The shots awoke Joni Bruner, who lives two doors down from where the gunfire started.
“We heard every shot and watched the whole thing from the window,” said Bruner, who said the shooting spilled into the street after it began in or near the house.
Bruner believes the party host’s father passed away in December and their mother was not home during the party.
“I don’t think she knows the extent of how bad this is,” Bruner said.
A resident in the neighborhood for 12 years, Bruner described the area as “quiet.” She said for the last several days, people had been coming and going from the house where the shooting happened.
“There had been parties there the last couple of nights,” she said.
Anchorage police said the person who went to the hospital did so in a private vehicle. They had a gunshot wound in their chest and were released from the hospital Tuesday.
Officers had not yet charged anyone in the case as they continued to conduct interviews Tuesday. APD spokesperson Renee Oistad urged any remaining witnesses or neighbors to speak with police if they had not already.
“If anyone saw anything and they haven’t yet spoken to police, we would like to hear from them,” Oistad said. “If anyone saw anything and they just didn’t call police or thought that maybe other people have taken care of it, we would still love their point of view.”
KTVA 11’s Eric Ruble can be reached via email or on Facebook and Twitter.
The post ‘It took everybody by surprise’: Party attendee describes shooting appeared first on KTVA 11.
