Crime & Justice

Anchorage police officer shoots at suspect during Monday morning incident

The Anchorage Police Department identified the suspect who an officer shot at early Monday morning in the neighborhood of Mountain View as 26-year-old Aaron Sullivan.

According to a Monday evening news release, Sullivan has been charged with first-degree attempted murder, first- and third-degree assault, third-degree misconduct involving weapons, eluding and reckless driving. Those charges all stem from Monday's incident, according to APD spokesperson Jennifer Castro.

The news release offered no additional information. APD Chief Mark Mew said during a press conference earlier in the day that details would be kept under wraps as the department continued its investigation.

An Anchorage police officer attempted to make a stop on a vehicle just before 3:40 a.m. near North Bragaw Street and Thompson Avenue, but the vehicle eluded police, Castro wrote in a press release.

The officer's vehicle collided with the suspect's vehicle on North Lane Street, near Mountain View Drive. The suspect threatened the officer with a handgun, Castro wrote, and the officer fired shots at the suspect.

Chief Mew offered few details during the Monday afternoon press conference, citing the ongoing investigation.

Mew said police arrested the suspect, later identified as Sullivan, at 11:55 a.m. Monday with the help of the APD Special Assignment Unit, which is staffed with SWAT officers who work street-level drug cases, run surveillance and provide backup during warrant arrests.

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Police had been looking for Sullivan for a week on an arrest warrant, Mew said. That warrant was related to a parole violation stemming from a conviction for misconduct involving a weapon, according to Castro.

According to online court records, Sullivan's Alaska rap sheet goes back to 2008, when he pleaded no contest to a weapons charge. In 2011, he pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in state Superior Court, and the following year he pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm as a felon.

Most recently, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft, and three additional assault charges were dropped by the state, according to court records.

The officer involved in the shooting will not be named until three days after the incident, per police department policy.

Before the incident, "there was sort of a cat-and-mouse response going on in north Mountain View," Mew said. "Eventually, they met up with the vehicle on Lane Street about a block north of Mountain View Drive."

The vehicles collided there, he said, adding the investigation into how the collision occurred is ongoing.

Either during or after the collision, Sullivan pointed a gun at the officer, Mew said. The officer fired at Sullivan, who fled in the vehicle, which was abandoned near Seventh Avenue and Pine Street. A handgun was recovered from the vehicle, he said.

Police are investigating whether Sullivan fired any rounds at the officer, Mew said.

Both the officer and Sullivan received minor injuries, but Mew declined to say how they received the injuries.

"We're investigating whether (Sullivan's injuries) came out of the collision or out of something else," Mew said.

Mew also declined to say how many officers were in the area at the time of the shooting but said officers tend to provide backup during pullovers of known felons such as Sullivan.

"The suspect is in custody now and he's being interviewed," Mew said. "Other potential parties who may have some knowledge of this are also being interviewed right now. Because of that, there are many details we have but we're not able to share. ... We need to tighten up our case the best we can and not telegraph certain facts that would, perhaps, cause folks to alter their interviews with us."

The police department's homicide unit, the special assignments unit, the crime scene team and the Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals are all working on the case.

Mew said OSPA will determine whether its new policy on use of deadly force implemented last year was followed. And the police department's internal affairs will examine the shooting and collision to "see how it stacks up against our policy," Mew said.

Monday morning's officer-involved shooting was the first such incident in a year and three months. An officer shot and killed 26-year-old Kenneth John, originally from the Western Alaska village of Grayling, in June 2013. John reportedly got out of his Chevy Blazer and approached the officer with two bladed weapons.

"We were trying to make it through the end of this year (without an officer-involved shooting). We didn't do that, but if all goes well it will be a low year -- maybe just one," Mew said before knocking on his wooden podium.

There are generally one to two such shootings per year, according to a University of Alaska Justice Center study. There were five shootings in both 2012 and 2013.

Jerzy Shedlock

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

Laurel Andrews

Laurel Andrews was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch News and Alaska Dispatch. She left the ADN in October 2018.

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