ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Security footage posted online raises questions about the Anchorage Police Department’s account of what happened when officers fatally shot a man armed with a long gun earlier this week.
In a statement Monday, Anchorage police said four officers responding to a domestic disturbance began shooting at Kristopher K. Handy outside an apartment complex after he pointed a gun at them.
But footage recorded by a neighbor’s security camera Monday morning appears to show that Handy, 34, did not raise the gun before he was shot. The video appears to show Handy carrying the gun with the barrel pointed down as he walked toward the officers, ignoring their commands to raise his hands. Shots then ring out.
Anchorage police have not released images from officers’ body-worn cameras. In a statement released on Thursday, Police Chief Bianca Cross warned against rushing to judgment.
“It’s easy to believe that the video tells the whole story, but that assumption is not true,” Cross said. “It’s important to remember that the video doesn’t capture a lot of detail to include what happened before the video was activated, what happened after the video was activated. closed and what happened outside the camera’s field of view.”
She added that the video “does not capture the human element of those involved to include their perception, what they see, what they hear and what they know.”
The state’s Special Prosecutor’s Office will determine whether the shooting was justified. The police department’s internal affairs department will also investigate to determine if there were any policy violations in the shooting.
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