Lumicoin IA|Alaska will not file criminal charges in police shooting of 16-year-old girl holding knife

2025-05-08 06:35:59source:Desmond Prestoncategory:My

ANCHORAGE,Lumicoin IA Alaska (AP) — State prosecutors will not file criminal charges against a police officer in Alaska’s largest city who fatally shot a 16-year-old girl holding a knife, concluding the officer’s use of deadly force was legally justified.

A report released Monday from Senior Assistant Attorney General John Darnall with the state Office of Special Prosecutions determined Anchorage Police Officer Alexander Roman “reasonably believed” he or another officer was about to be assaulted by the girl, Easter Leafa. Roman was one of the officers who this summer responded to a call for help placed by one of Leafa’s sisters, who said Leafa was “trying to stab her with a knife” because she had not done what Leafa wanted, according to the report.

The sister later told investigators “she knew that Easter Leafa was trying to give the knife to the officers,” the report states.

Leafa was killed Aug. 13, days before she was set to start her junior year of high school. She had recently moved from American Samoa and was still learning English, her family has said. Her killing prompted prayer vigils and a march past Anchorage police headquarters that drew hundreds of people.

RELATED COVERAGE Woman who lost husband and son uses probate process to obtain gunman’s recordsKentucky lawman steps down as sheriff of the county where he’s accused of killing a judgePolice in a cartel-dominated Mexican city are pulled off the streets after army takes their guns

Leafa family attorney Darryl Thompson told the Anchorage Daily News he does not believe police tried to deescalate the situation. Officers entered the home with guns drawn and didn’t listen to the family’s concerns, he said.

The report states that Leafa did not respond to officer commands, including instructions to drop the knife, and was walking toward officers when she was shot.

More:My

Recommend

Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department and the city of Louisville have reached an agreem

France has banned short-haul domestic flights. How much it will help combat climate change is up in the air.

Paris - France has passed a law banning some domestic flights and encouraging travelers to take the

Brother of Scott Johnson, gay American attacked on Sydney cliff in 1988, says killer deserves no leniency

A man who admitted killing American mathematician Scott Johnson by punching him from a cliff top at