Crime & Courts

Shooting of teenager killed on Government Hill captured on surveillance video

Police have identified a teenage boy shot dead on a street in the Government Hill neighborhood of Anchorage early Saturday morning as Jesus Oropeza, 17.

Lt. John McKinnon of the Anchorage Police Department's homicide division said on Sunday that surveillance video captured the killing, which happened on a street where small, well-kept houses in one of Anchorage's oldest neighborhoods meet a large park. 

Oropeza left a house just after midnight and was confronted by two people on the 700 block of Birch Street, McKinnon said. Detectives aren't sure if Oropeza knew the people or if they were strangers.

Oropeza was then ordered to the ground, where he was frisked and then shot in the back, McKinnon said. He was alive when police arrived but died at a local hospital

McKinnon did not say whether the footage came from a home or commercial building. Police were not able to determine if the suspects are male and female based on the video, he said. 

Detectives are investigating the killing, Anchorage's second homicide this year. No arrests have been made.

Michelle Theriault Boots

Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. She focuses on in-depth stories about the intersection of public policy and Alaskans' lives. Before joining the ADN in 2012, she worked at daily newspapers up and down the West Coast and earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon.

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