One person is dead after an early morning shooting at the Alano Club in Spenard.
“We received a call about shots being fired inside and outside the Alano Club,” said Lt. Jason Schmidt with the Anchorage Police Department.
The call came in around 1:20 a.m. Saturday, according to an APD release.
When police arrived at Alano, located at 3013 Spenard Rd., they found a male who appeared to have been shot. APD has identified the victim as 18-year-old Alex Thanapong Yu.
One witness at the scene, who says he knew the victim, said he had just left Alano shortly before the shooting happened. He said he turned around and headed back to Alano immediately after he received a call that his friend had been shot.
“So I’m heading right back here and then I see, like, 20 cop cars,” the witness said, adding that he became more concerned once he saw a body bag. ”He’s over there with a bullet wound…I’m trying to make sure if he’s dead or alive.”
Medics tried to revive the victim, Schmidt said, but those efforts were unsuccessful. He was declared deceased at the scene.
Those who were inside the Alano at the time of the shooting were pretty shaken up, Schmidt says. Teens and young adults frequent Alano to attend the club’s “sober dance” events, and the lieutenant says it’s out of the ordinary for APD to respond to a violent crime at this location.
“When we arrived, there was a pretty large crowd. It got fairly unruly at one point,” Schmidt said, adding that at least 10 or 15 officers were at the scene at one point. “They were very upset over this situation, understandably so.”
No suspects have been taken into custody, as of Saturday morning. Police are in the process of interviewing witnesses in the ongoing investigation. Units from APD could still be seen at the crime scene at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Anyone with information regarding the shooting that has not yet spoken to police is encouraged to contact APD at 786-8900. To provide an anonymous tip, contact Anchorage Crime Stoppers at 561-STOP.
