The mayor of Anchorage, Alaska promised reform after a 16-year-old girl was shot and killed by police on Tuesday night, marking the city’s sixth officer-involved shooting this year and the fourth fatal one.
“We cannot and we will not accept this as a new normal in Anchorage,” Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said in a statement. “We lost a young person in our community who should have been starting her first day of school today.”
LaFrance apologized directly to the teen’s family in a news conference on Wednesday.
“As a mom of a 16-year-old, I am heartbroken that we have lost such a young life in our community,” LaFrance said. “To the family of Easter Leafa, I am so incredibly sorry for your loss. This young woman deserved to be safe in our community, and you deserved so much more time with her.”
According to a police statement, officers responded to a call reporting that someone was threatening others with a knife inside an apartment. When officers arrived and the girl did not drop the knife, two officers opened fire. The girl was then taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.
But in an interview with KTUU, 16-year-old Easter Leafa’s family told a more detailed and disturbing account of the incident.
Rosalie Tialavea, Leafa’s oldest sister, recounted how the police entered the apartment with their guns drawn, without asking any questions about Leafa’s age or who lived there, despite Leafa’s mother being present and several minors, including infants, being in the home.
“They told us to get in the room and get out of their way,” Tialavea recalled. “I asked them if I could talk to my youngest because we all know how she is, and how she is not a social person. I asked them and they said no.”
Tialavea described Leafa as an “overthinker” who sometimes had emotional breakdowns. On the night of the incident, she was sitting on the balcony with a blanket over her head. The family believed they could talk her out of holding the knife and tried to intervene, but the police insisted they stay out of the way.
According to the family, Leafa’s English was not very strong, and when the police ordered her to drop the knife she was holding downward by her side, they said it didn’t take much for the officers to shoot.
“She made one movement, a little tiny movement,” Tialavea said. “They shot her three times… They saw her go down on the second shot and they had to fire another one.”
The Anchorage Police Department on Saturday identified the officer who shot Leafa as Alexander Roman, who was hired in December 2017. The department did not provide any other information and it was not clear if Roman has been charged with any crime. It was also not immediately clear if Roman has retained an attorney.
Leafa’s family revealed that she and her mother had recently moved to Anchorage from American Samoa in search of a better education. Leafa was set to begin her junior year of high school at Bettye Davis East High School this week.
“She doesn’t know that much. She just moved here. It’s very different here than it is back home,” Tialavea said. “So with them coming at her like that, and shot her like that, it’s very heartbreaking.”
Leafa’s family remembered her as someone who “loved to sing” and cared for her nieces and nephews as if they were her own children.
“Out of all the options you had, the only option you had was a gun?” Leafa’s other sister Faialofa Dixon asked, directing her question at the police.
“At this point we want justice because that was not right,” Dixon continued. “They should’ve asked questions when they came in. Instead they came in ready, looking like they were ready to shoot her down.”
“They took our girl’s life,” Leafa’s mother, also named Easter, said through tears. She added that she felt sorry for her grandchildren who also had to witness the shooting.
Hours before LaFrance’s apology to the family, raw body camera footage of the fatal police shooting of Kristopher Handy in May was released by KTUU. Although police initially told reporters that Handy had raised a long gun toward officers before they shot him, security video suggested that Handy did not raise his weapon. At least ten shots can be heard in the videos before Handy collapsed and died on the scene.
Last month, KTUU reported that the state had determined the four Anchorage police officers who fired their guns were “legally justified” in shooting and killing Handy. Handy’s family, meanwhile, had expressed their anger to KTUU, criticizing the police department for its lack of communication with them.
In June, 21-year-old Tyler May died following a police shooting surrounded by conflicting accounts. That same month, 58-year-old Lisa Fordyce-Blair was shot by a police officer during a standoff and later died.
On Wednesday, LaFrance and Anchorage Chief of Police Sean Case announced a series of actions in response to Leafa’s death and the five previous officer-involved shootings. These include an independent investigation into Leafa’s killing and the Anchorage police department’s policies and practices, the formation of a community advisory committee, and departmental changes within the police force. A public report summarizing findings from the past 15 years of officer-involved shootings will also be released.
In a statement released Friday, the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association acknowledged the “tragic” loss of life and the “immeasurable weight this incident has placed on our officers.”
The statement, signed by association president Darrell Evans, accused city leaders of coming to conclusions about the case before the investigation has played out and of being “content with calling for action without knowing the facts.”
“The investigation has only just begun, and the mayor is apologizing for the actions of an officer that has yet to describe and explain those actions,” Evans said.
Evans also said the six recent officer-involved shootings have been “oversimplified,” and that that oversimplification “does nothing to acknowledge the weight of each of those incidents.”
“It is unfortunate that our officers have been faced with six critical incidents in a short period of time, but don’t let that unfortunate fact diminish your trust in your police department,” Evans continued.
Anchorage is Alaska’s most populous city, with the 2020 Census reporting a population of over 291,000.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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