Surveillance video shows fatal police shooting of Anchorage teenager

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska News Source has obtained surveillance video showing the balcony of an Anchorage apartment where a 16-year-old girl was shot and killed by Anchorage police on May 13.

This story provides a timeline comparison of the surveillance video with Anchorage Police Department statements and press releases and will be updated as new interviews are conducted.

According to a press release, on August 13 at 11:32 p.m., patrol officers responded to an apartment complex in the 4800 block of East 43rd Avenue where an armed disturbance was occurring. It was reported that a woman was threatening other people in the apartment with a knife.

Surveillance video from the house begins at 11:40 p.m. The grainy black-and-white video is posted in a window that looks out onto the parking lot of the Greenbriar Apartments on Tudor Road. The Leafas' apartment can be seen in the background across the parking lot.

At 11:41 p.m., the home video shows a light source, presumably a flashlight, illuminating the balcony from below. According to the family, Easter was there when police arrived, holding a knife and covered with a blanket.

A few minutes later, at 11:45:07 p.m., flashlights can be seen from inside the apartment and the black silhouette of Easter Leafa stands on the balcony.

Thirty-six seconds later, at 11:45:43 p.m., more police flashlights illuminate the apartment, as can be seen on the surveillance video.

“Officers opened the screen door and made contact with Easter. They ordered her to remove the blanket, stand up and drop the knife,” Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case said at a press conference earlier this week. “She stood up. She removed the blanket and turned around. In her right hand she was holding a knife. Easter then approached officers with the knife at approximately leg height.”

As heard and seen in the video at 11:45:52 p.m., the sound of four gunshots breaks the silence of the night and Leafa is seen falling to the floor of the balcony.

“One officer fired three shots from his pistol and the other officer fired one shot with a less lethal projectile,” Case said.

The surveillance video does not show Easter lunging at the officers, nor does the video show any sudden or exaggerated movements prior to the shooting.

At APD's second press conference on the shooting, Case was asked if Easter was aggressive toward officers. APD was also asked to describe what happened between the time officers saw Easter standing by her side with the knife and the time officers fired their weapons.

“The best description I can give is that Easter had the knife in her right hand,” Case said. “She had it slightly higher than leg height as she walked toward the officers in a confined space.”

From the time officers were called to the scene by Leafa's sister to the time of the shooting, about 20 minutes passed. Home surveillance video shows that about five minutes passed while officers were stationed with flashlights both under Leafa's balcony and inside the house.

Before the shooting, Leafa's family asked police to speak to the teenager because they believed they could get her to drop the knife. Those requests were not granted, according to the family.

Alaska News Source whether it was against police policy or law for officers to allow the family to speak directly with Easter during the police operation.

“The officers' actions are currently under investigation by the OSP (Office of Special Prosecutions),” Renee Oistad, a community relations specialist with the APD, responded via email. “We will not comment further on the circumstances surrounding the call until the OSP has completed its portion and made a determination.”

According to the APD's Manual of Policies, Regulations and Procedures, “Officers must be aware that deadly force is an extreme measure and may only be used in accordance with the law and as set forth in this policy.”

Leafa's shooting was the fourth fatal police-involved shooting – there have been six – in the past three months. Leafa was the only one of the four who was not carrying a weapon at the time of the police shooting.

Decisions about when to use force are often made under enormous stress and in volatile, changing and dynamic conditions.

Police and courts believe that a certain amount of leeway is necessary when officers have to make split-second decisions that could mean the difference between life and death.

“Objectively reasonable” is a standard established by the Supreme Court in 1989 when it held that a police officer’s excessive use of force must be viewed in the context of what reasonable officers would do in the same situation, given the danger and stress of police work.

In Leafa's case, some community members and her family members questioned why officers opened the glass door to the balcony to attack Easter at close range, even though she was not carrying a weapon and no one else in the immediate area appeared to be in danger when police entered the apartment.

At Monday's press conference, police were asked additional questions about why less lethal force was not the only option available to officers.

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