A 21-year-old man who Anchorage police say was a suspect in a fatal shooting over the weekend died by suicide Sunday during an encounter with officers, the police department said.
Officers responded to a domestic disturbance report just before 2 p.m. Sunday that involved Kawika Pacarro, police wrote in an online statement.
“Through that investigation it was determined that Pacarro was involved in the homicide of 20-year-old Markland Morgan the day before in the Alaska Club East parking lot,” police said in a statement Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for the police department declined to answer questions about the circumstances surrounding the domestic disturbance or how investigators connected Pacarro to the shooting.
Police provided few details about the fatal shooting Saturday night but said the investigation was ongoing and officers are looking into the motive and the relationship between Pacarro and Morgan. Morgan was dead in the parking lot when police arrived at the gym just before 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the department said in an earlier statement.
Officers on Sunday found Pacarro driving in South Anchorage and followed him until he pulled over a dead-end street near Newell Drive and Clarks Road in the Bear Valley neighborhood, police said.
“Kawika exited his vehicle, had a brief verbal exchange with officers, and then took his own life,” police said.
Police spokeswoman Renee Oistad said that Pacarro shot himself, but she declined to provide details about what was said during the exchange between Pacarro and the officers or answer a question about whether officers knew Pacarro was armed.
Pacarro did not threaten officers, Oistad said, but she did not answer a question about whether officers had drawn their own guns toward him during the interaction. No shots were fired by the officers, according to the statement from police.
Next of kin for both men have been notified, police said.