Crime & Courts

Anchorage police seek ‘person of interest’ in June shooting at grocery store

Anchorage police are asking for the public's help in locating a person of interest in a June shooting investigation.

Police would like to speak with Thomas McKnight, 38, who may have information about the June 16 shooting in the parking lot of the Aurora Village Carrs Safeway store that left a man gravely injured.

A 911 call reporting the shooting near Minnesota Drive and Northern Lights Boulevard came in at about 4:20 a.m., according to Anchorage Police Lt. John McKinnon.

Police arrived to find a sedan idling in the store's parking lot and the victim, 31-year-old Brandon A. Smith, sitting in the front passenger seat with a gunshot wound to the neck, McKinnon said.

Police describe McKnight as a white man who is 6 feet tall, weighs 160 pounds and has brown hair and blue eyes.

Anyone with information about McKnight's whereabouts is asked to call police dispatchers at 907-786-8900, or to submit an anonymous tip through Anchorage Crime Stoppers.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the Anchorage neighborhood where the shooting occurred. The Carrs Aurora Village store is in Spenard, not Fairview. 

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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