A 31-year-old Anchorage woman faces murder charges in connection with a Friday afternoon shooting on a street in Mountain View that left one person dead and another with serious injuries.
Video recorded by a witness indicated that Juliana Tauamo Khatthamane and a woman physically fought each other before Khatthamane shot multiple times at the woman, killing her, and shot at a man who’d accompanied the woman, according to a criminal complaint filed Saturday.
Khatthamane was arrested Friday on charges of first- and second-degree murder and first-degree assault, and remained in custody at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River.
Police received multiple calls just before 4 p.m. Friday from people who reported hearing nine or 10 gunshots in the area of Thompson Avenue and Schodde Street, according to a sworn complaint signed by Anchorage police detective Brendan Lee.
When police arrived at the scene, they found the two victims with multiple gunshot wounds on their upper bodies, according to the complaint. Officers and the victim’s family members attempted life-saving measures and Anchorage Fire Department medics took the two victims to the hospital, where the woman was declared dead and the man was taken into surgery, the complaint said.
People who told police they had witnessed the shooting identified Khatthamane as a suspect, the complaint said. One witness showed police a video they had taken on their cellphone, which showed someone who police believe to be Khatthamane fighting with the woman before Khatthamane fired a handgun several times at her and the man with her, the complaint said.
Multiple children were nearby at the time of the shooting, the complaint said.
After being taken into custody, Khatthamane told detectives she shot the victims, and said that the other woman had “been harassing her for calling the police on her from incidents in the past” and the man had encouraged them to continue fighting, according to the complaint.
A judge set Khatthamane’s bail at $500,000 and appointed a public defender during her first court appearance Saturday afternoon.