EDITORIAL: What the Easter Leafa police shooting video revealed

The mistake officers made just before fatally shooting 16-year-old Easter Leafa was simple but extremely consequential. Anchorage police officers responding to a call that Leafa was carrying a knife and threatening her sister had handled the situation reasonably well – almost until the last moment. They had responded to a crowded apartment, and despite some factors that resulted in a higher-stress situation than optimal (the introduction of drawn weapons in an already tense environment, a significant language barrier between officers and Leafa's family), the officers Leafa had the others Residents of the apartment were located and brought out of the danger zone.

But then, inexplicably — while Leafa sat passively and safely isolated on the apartment's outdoor patio — officers did something that led to the shooting and Leafa's subsequent death less than a minute later.

They opened the door to the deck and began giving orders to Leafa, immediately removing the barrier that was safely isolating her and barking orders that only escalated the situation. Just a minute after an APD officer opened the door, Leafa stood up and re-entered the apartment without responding to the shouted command to drop the kitchen knife she was holding – and was immediately shot multiple times shot by the police.

Last week, the Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions determined that the officers did not violate the law in their response and shooting of Leafa, and footage released by the APD confirms this – although there were several points of failure in the decisions Different measures could have been taken to prevent the shooting while protecting the public and emergency responders. For example, why weren't less lethal options like Tasers or beanbag bullets used before lethal force and not at the same time? Why was the first reaction when confronted with a caged teenager in obvious psychological distress to issue orders that threatened injury or death, rather than speaking calmly and attempting to de-escalate Leafa's psychological state? And most importantly, why did the officer intentionally turn a scene that was safe due to the presence of a closed (and lockable) door into a scene that was so quickly fatal?

Importantly, these miscalculations are not illegal—the Office of Special Prosecutions is correct that nothing in Alaska law prohibits the officers' actions. And the right to self-defense in a dangerous situation is also important and necessary so that the police can do their job effectively. But if officers fail to understand how they turned a sensitive but safe crime scene into one that resulted in an entirely avoidable death, that is a serious oversight and should result in them being permanently barred from the possibility of facing one to re-establish the crime scene, whether through administrative reassignment or dismissal from the force. Because without taking responsibility for such serious mistakes, we send the message that such actions are permissible – and we do nothing to prevent them from occurring again in the future.

Policing is a very difficult job, but ultimately it is a job where people can and should face disciplinary action for poor performance. In the private sector, people are fired for administrative errors or even for showing up late for work. For an officer, an error that defies common sense and results in death should also have real consequences.

The Leafa shooting is also one of the first major incidents to underscore the value of APD's long-delayed body cameras as an important transparency tool. In addition to the carefully edited format, which the department believes is critical to providing context (i.e., the department's perspective) on what happened, APD also released the unedited footage, which is commendable. Having real-time images of the incident is helpful for Anchorage residents to better judge for themselves whether what police say is consistent with what is shown in the video. It's not perfect, but it's a valuable asset — and one that doesn't always work against officers, as just-released footage of a harrowing shooting on Parks Highway showed.

The mistakes surrounding the police shooting of Easter Leafa were not illegal, but they were obvious and preventable, and we should expect better from the officers sworn to protect us. They should expect more from each other. APD should reform its policies to include serious consequences for fundamental errors of judgment like those in the Leafa case.