Authorities identify person killed in West Anchorage shooting Saturday as 21-year-old soldier

A 21-year-old soldier was killed in a shooting early Saturday in West Anchorage that also injured two others, authorities said.

No arrests had been made in the case as of Tuesday, an Anchorage police department spokeswoman said.

Police have said officers found a man dead in a home with gunshot wounds to his upper body when they responded just before 4 a.m. to the 3400 block of Greenland Drive. The area is west of Minnesota Drive between Benson Boulevard and Spenard Road in the Spenard neighborhood.

The Anchorage Police Department in an update Monday identified the man who died in the shootings as Jaivion Hawkins. Police spokeswoman Renee Oistad said Hawkins had a driver’s license issued out of Georgia.

Hawkins was a motor transport operator with the 11th Airborne Division on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a U.S. Army Alaska spokesman said Tuesday. The Army described him as a resident of Florida.

Hawkins served with the 725th Brigade Support Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), according to a release from Army spokesman John Pennell. Hawkins joined the Army in October 2021, and reported to Alaska in May 2022 after training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, Pennell said.

Police on Saturday said a second man found in a vehicle with gunshot wounds to his upper body was taken to a hospital with injuries they described as life-threatening. A third man shot in the lower body went to a hospital on his own with injuries described as not life-threatening, they said.

An update on the condition of the other people described as victims was not immediately available. The other two victims are not in the military, Pennell said Tuesday.

Oistad in an email Monday said police were “not releasing any more details as of now” in response to questions including whether any suspects had been questioned or whether the shootings were carried by one or more people.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting, including surveillance video, to call dispatch at 311 (option 1) or 907-786-8900 (option 0).