ANCHORAGE – Two people are dead, a third is hospitalized and a suspect remains on the loose following a shooting in Downtown Anchorage Monday evening.
Police and paramedics responded to the scene just east of 5th Avenue and Karluk Street around 6 p.m., when the shooting happened in a tent just past a business parking lot at the intersection. The Anchorage Police Department said one person was pronounced dead at the scene, and another died later Monday evening after being hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
Descriptions of the suspect vary: Initial APD reports said a male with a medium build, around 5 feet 8 inches tall, was wearing a black striped jacket when he was last seen heading west on Karluk Street on foot. But the surviving victim said the shooter was around 6 feet tall and had dark-colored, shoulder-length hair.
Police K-9 units, SWAT teams, detectives and officers combed the surrounding areas Monday evening, but did not locate the suspect.
The shooting shook up two witnesses parked nearby when it happened.
The witnesses – who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from the suspect — said they heard eight to 10 shots.
“The wind muffled it and so it sounded kind of strange, almost like fireworks, and then I told her I wonder if that was shots?” said one witness.
Right after hearing the shots, they saw a man run over a snow bank and cross 5th Avenue.
“He just immediately started going across the street and of course we’re like, ‘I wonder if something happened, I wonder, could he have shot somebody?’” the second witness said.
They said they didn’t realize what had happened until police and paramedics arrived.
“Hoping that it wasn’t gun shots, we pulled back out and then all of a sudden the police come and we’re like, “Oh, gosh, we were just there,” the second witness said.
The witnesses say it was scary ordeal, made all the more frightening by the knowledge the shooter is still out there.
“My heart is racing,” the first witness said. “It’s scary to actually be near something like that.”