Man fatally shot in downtown Anchorage parking garage

The Anchorage Police Department said a 20-year-old man died after he was shot in a downtown parking garage Wednesday night, but they provided few other details.

Police in an update Friday identified the man as 20-year-old Skyler Burkett, of Grayling.

Officers responding to the top level of the garage at 245 W. Fifth Ave. found Burkett with a gunshot wound to his upper body, police said. In an update Thursday morning, police said he had died.

Detectives conducted interviews Thursday morning, but no charges had been filed by Friday afternoon, a police spokeswoman said. The motive for the shooting was under investigation, they said. A spokeswoman for the municipal authority that operates the parking garage called the shooting an isolated incident.

A spokeswoman for the police department did not answer questions about the shooting Friday, citing the ongoing investigation.

The garage is one of several operated in the city by Anchorage Community Development Authority’s parking division, EasyPark.

EasyPark facilities have security measures including “surveillance and access control systems, as well as dedicated staffing,” Melinda Gant, a spokeswoman for the community development authority, said in an email. “Despite these efforts, we are devastated that this isolated incident occurred within our premises.”

Officials in the parking division will “take all necessary steps to review and enhance our security protocols to prevent future occurrences,” Gant said.

The garage is open at all hours for permit and public parking, she said.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call dispatch at 311, option 1, or 907-786-8900, option 0. Anonymous information can be submitted online.