OFFICER WOUNDED: Fleeing driver crashed into police patrol cars and civilian vehicles.
Police shot a man who died in the Carrs parking lot on Jewel Lake Road Monday after he led them on a high-speed chase down Dimond Boulevard that ended with an officer shot, a passenger in the fleeing Jeep Cherokee hospitalized, several seriously beat-up cruisers, and a pile of shattered glass amid a tangle of damaged civilian cars.
The police officer suffered a "slight gunshot wound" and the woman accompanying the fugitive sustained minor injuries, said Anchorage Police Department spokesman Lt. Paul Honeman.
The officer, whom Honeman refused to identify, was treated at the scene and did not need further medical assistance, he said. The woman was hospitalized but the extent of her injuries was not immediately known.
None of the people involved were named Monday night.
Police initially tried to pull over the couple because the jeep was stolen, Honeman said.
It remained unclear at press time if the man had a weapon when police opened fire on him.
Honeman said he did not know if the wounded officer was injured as a result of friendly fire or from shots possibly fired by the driver. The driver's actions while at the wheel would be enough to warrant lethal force, Honeman said.
"When a person is sitting there ramming a vehicle, I'd say he poses a great risk to life and property," Honeman said.
WEST ALONG DIMOND
Witnesses reported hearing between six and 15 gunshots, though police could not confirm how many were actually fired during the confrontation, which lasted less than five minutes.
The chase began just after 4 p.m. when a police shift supervisor spotted the stolen 1989 blue Jeep Cherokee in the area of Dimond and Arctic Boulevard. The locate order was put out on the Jeep Monday morning, Honeman said, and it was implicated in thefts at one or more department stores earlier in the day.
The officer attempted to pull it over, but its driver, identified only as a white male, "took off." Police chased the man west along Dimond as they tried to box him in to bring him to a stop, Honeman said.
"The vehicles were trying to pin him and he was ramming them," Honeman said.
The man wouldn't stop, and the chase moved along Dimond toward the Carrs parking lot. Along the way, surprised drivers like Daizron Jones, 24, got front-row seats to the chase as it sped by.
"Oh my God, it had to be like six police cars that were coming from every which way," Jones said. "I didn't think the police could chase them like that, because we almost got ran over."
Jessica Summerhays, who works at Denali Alaskan Credit Union in the mall, was in her car at the intersection of Dimond and Jewel Lake when she saw a blue Jeep careen onto Dimond, trailing police cars. One police car stopped, she said, and an officer got out and drew her gun. The car sped into the parking lot.
"Not even 10 seconds later I heard like eight pops," Summerhays said.
The driver pulled the Jeep into the parking lot and rammed into two other vehicles, a green flatbed truck and a white Ford Econoline.
Three police cars lined up behind the Jeep, blocking it in. T.J. Mathis, 40, heard screeching tires, and bullets hitting and breaking glass, from where he was working in front of the Carrs store. About 10 police cars came through directly in front of the store "at full throttle" just before the shots went off, he said.
It was unclear if the driver attempted to leave the vehicle, but at some point officers opened fire.
"All of a sudden I heard this volley of gunshots," said Cheryl Gudde, 45, who lives right across the road from the store. "It was an absolute mass of police cars down here."
By the time Mathis got to a vantage point to see what happened, he saw three officers taking a man out of the Jeep to begin resuscitation efforts.
"He was totally limp when he came out," he said.
PASSENGER ARRESTED
At Carr Gottstein Properties, another business in the mall, the sound of gunshots got workers' attention. The Jeep pulled into the parking lot and slammed into a company truck, then into a van, pushing it out of its parking spot, said employee April Mathers. When she got to the window, the police were putting a woman in handcuffs into a patrol car. Her sweatshirt was covered with blood, she said.
She was being questioned by police late Monday night, Honeman said.
Following the shooting, the driver was lifted into a fire department ambulance that sat near the shattered glass and debris blanketing the asphalt. At least three bullet holes were visible in the area of the Jeep's rear passenger door; the front driver's side window and rear passenger window were broken out.
At least four police cars were dented from scraping alongside the Jeep, and one had dents and scratches all along its passenger side.
About 20 police and rescue vehicles were on the scene as the afternoon rush hour got started, blocking off about a third of the parking lot.
As part of standard procedure, any officers involved in the shooting will be placed on three days' administrative leave, Honeman said. As many as three officers may have been involved, he said.
"It was frightening as hell. This is my backyard," Gudde said. "It just seems to be getting progressively worse and worse."
Daily News reporter Julia O'Malley contributed to this report. Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
