An Anchorage man shot to death over the weekend was killed during an altercation at a South Anchorage apartment, though no one has been charged in the death, police said Monday.

Benjamin F. Guinto Jr., 30, died Saturday morning after what neighbors described as a disturbance in a ground-floor apartment at 3640 W. Dimond Blvd. Following an autopsy Monday, detectives labeled the death a homicide.

One witness to the shooting, Jeremy Bohn, said he was helping a man named Roy, the apartment tenant, tow his truck home after work. In a brief interview Monday, Bohn said he didn't know Roy but two of his friends -- previously identified by police as witnesses Ariel Sizemore, 19, and Sineti Delara, 29 -- did. The women waited at the apartment while Bohn and Roy brought the vehicle back, he said.

"There was another individual in there that (Roy) didn't like that I didn't know about and nobody else really knew. We thought they were friends," Bohn said. "He went in there, you know, they started arguing and one guy pulled out a gun; the other guy pulled out a gun and then one of them gets shot."

Bohn and his friends were scared they might be shot as well and took off, though the shooter did seem "broken up" about it, he said.

"I don't think it was intentional," Bohn said. "I think it was just they were wrestling around and, you know, the trigger got pulled."

Police say they arrived on scene to find the tenant's vehicle, disabled with mechanical problems, parked askance outside the unit and the three witnesses gone. All have since given statements to detectives.

"There was a fourth person there and he apparently was involved in the homicide," police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said Monday. "Now we have to determine whether it was a justifiable or non-justifiable homicide."

Police picked up that man, whom they have not yet named, outside the apartment. Neighbors described him as crying hysterically in the snow after the shooting.

According to property management, a married couple, Roy and Marilee Kawamoto, live in the apartment.

Nel Hernandez, a 47-year-old cousin of Guinto's, said Guinto had a 6-year old son and a wife, both of whom are currently living in the Philippines. Guinto graduated from West High School and had been in the Army National Guard, he said. "He was a good kid," Hernandez said.

In recent years, Guinto had trouble with the law. According to court records, Guinto broke into a vehicle and stole a stereo and a checkbook in July 2006, writing two checks totalling more than $3,000. Guinto pleaded no contest to felony theft and was sentenced to six months in prison, court records indicate.

Later in July 2006, while police were still investigating the break-in, Guinto burst into a neighbor's Spenard home, stuck a pistol in a man's face and demanded cash. Guinto pleaded no contest to second-degree robbery and was again sentenced to six months in prison, according to court records.

Then in April 2008, Guinto was charged with felony assault after he allegedly put his forearm to the throat of his ex-girlfriend and pulled a knife on her, threatening to kill her, because he was mad she had been in the company of another man, according to a police affidavit filed in court. The charge was later dismissed for reasons not known Monday.

"It's been settled already," said Hernandez, declining to discuss the cases. "He was trying to move on."