Anchorage

West Anchorage shooting leads to manhunt for suspect

Police continued to search for a suspect Thursday who shot a man in West Anchorage and then fled, authorities said.

Officers responded to reports of a shooting on the 3500 block of West 79th Avenue around 4:45 p.m. They found a man with a single bullet wound to his upper thigh, said Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Renee Oistad.

Oistad said the shooting happened outside. The suspect, a man police say is armed with a handgun, left the scene on foot and remained missing at 7:45 p.m. The man shot was taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, Oistad said.

Police had blocked off streets in the neighborhood Thursday evening, setting up a perimeter for a dog search. SWAT officers were also on the scene. Police did not evacuate any nearby residents, Oistad said.

Around 7:30 p.m., Oistad said the dog search had "gone cold." The dog had lost the scent of the suspect and police began to break down the perimeter, she said.

"The K-9 didn't pick up anything, so who knows where he went," Oistad said.

Police described the suspect as a light-skinned black man around age 18. He has "sparse facial hair" and was seen wearing black-rimmed eyeglasses, a grayish-brown hoodie and dark pants.

Oistad said police remained in the area Thursday night as the investigation continued.

Tegan Hanlon

Tegan Hanlon was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News between 2013 and 2019. She now reports for Alaska Public Media.

Jerzy Shedlock

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

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