Crime & Courts

APD: Men’s dispute over ‘living situation’ escalates with bear spray and gunfire

A dispute between two men in Mountain View over their "living situation" erupted with gunfire and bear spray Tuesday morning, Anchorage police said.

One man was arrested and the other taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound in the lower body, Anchorage police spokesman MJ Thim said.

Police got a call at 10:17 a.m. about a shooting in the 3700 block of Richmond Avenue.

Some number of people lived in the townhome and witnessed the escalating domestic dispute.

One man, Zanders Herndon, 35, was asked to move out and refused, police said. A roommate unleashed the pepper spray. Then, Thim said, Herndon shot him with a handgun.

"It's all over: 'Please move out,' " Thim said.

In the townhome, "everyone was impacted by the bear spray," Thim said. No one needed medical treatment for being sprayed.

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The shooting victim was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police interviewed Herndon, the shooting victim and witnesses.

Herndon ultimately was arrested on multiple charges, including assault and weapons misconduct, according to police.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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