Crime & Courts

3 people hospitalized in Anchorage shootings

Three people were hospitalized in two separate shooting incidents in Anchorage early Sunday morning, the Anchorage Police Department said.

The first of the two incidents happened at about 3 a.m. in a parking lot on the Old Seward Highway, north of Dimond Boulevard, according to a statement from police.

Police report they received several calls about a shooting on the 7900 block of Old Seward around 3 a.m. Sunday. When officers arrived, they found no victims at the scene, but later, two adults arrived at an Anchorage hospital with gunshot wounds. One victim had life-threatening injuries and the other had non-life threatening injuries.

Detectives believe the two victims were taken from the parking lot to the hospital by friends, and that there were multiple people in the parking lot at the time of the shooting. This investigation is ongoing. The shooting happened around bar break, he said.

The parking lot where the shooting happened is near East 78th Avenue and adjacent to Al's Alaskan Inn, APD spokesman M.J. Thim said.

Police then received a report of a shooting at a house party on the 3500 block of West 88th Avenue in the Sand Lake neighborhood around 5:20 a.m., according to a statement from the APD.

Police say a man was shot "in the lower body" at the party and was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Alcohol is believed to be a factor in the shooting, according to the statement.

ADVERTISEMENT

On Friday night, a man's body was discovered in a car parked in the middle of the road on the 8900 block of Dewberry Street just a few blocks from the location of the party. Thim said police are investigating the man's death as a homicide. Drug paraphernalia was found in the vehicle of the victim, who has not yet been identified.

Police don't think the incidents are linked, Thim said.

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.

ADVERTISEMENT