Hundreds of people marched Saturday in downtown Anchorage calling for justice, peace and changes in the Anchorage Police Department after an officer fatally shot a 16-year-old girl in her family’s apartment.
Easter Leafa’s death has prompted community anguish and alarm, and added scrutiny of the police department, leading Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and Police Chief Sean Case to announce a series of reforms aimed at reducing the number of officer shootings in Anchorage.
Anchorage Daily News reports that six people have been shot by Anchorage police during the last three months. Four have died and two were wounded.
Case said Leafa was holding a knife when Officer Alexander Roman shot her while responding to a report of a domestic disturbance, Tuesday night. Another officer in the apartment fired less-lethal projectiles rather than a gun, Case said.
Saturday’s march was aimed at finding peace and creating a unified path forward as a city, said the Rev. Samuel Fiu Unutoa, CEO of the Samoan Tribal Council of Alaska.
“Samoans don’t have protests in their culture,” he said. “Samoans are a warrior tribe, we don’t protest, we fight … but we also know how not to fight by sitting down and talking together … and that’s what we are doing. We are going to talk today. We are going to talk tomorrow. We are going to talk every day with our city and let them know who we are, and how we are, as a tribe so they can help us and that they can understand us.”
