Anchorage police officer Alexander Roman will not be charged, since he was “legally justified in his use of deadly force against Easter Leafa,” according to the report from the Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions.
“Today, the Office of Special Prosecutions completed its review of an officer-involved shooting on August 13, 2024, involving Easter Leafa, 16, and Anchorage Police Department Officer Alexander Roman,” the Department of Law said in a statement.
“The review determined that Officer Roman was legally justified in his use of deadly force against Easter Leafa. The incident occurred after APD received a 911 call alleging Ms. Leafa had threatened a family member with a knife and responded to the report,” the department said. The Office of Special Prosecutions investigates all such officer-involved shootings in the state.
After the incident in August, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance jumped to the conclusion that the police officers were wrong to shoot the teen, although she was a large person who started coming at them with a large knife. She said the shot should never have been fired.
Anchorage Police have had to deal with an increasing number of violent individuals over the past year, and Mayor LaFrance made a public announcement that the police were at fault and that she would open up her own investigation with a third party.
To date, none of the police involved in shooting of suspects has been prosecuted by the Office of Special Prosecutions. There have been five officer-involved shootings in 2024 in Anchorage.
After meeting with the police union officials who supported her campaign, LaFrance then halfway apologized for apologizing for the Easter Leafa incident.
The Anchorage Police Department has released police body-worn camera footage from the incident at this link, and one is embedded here:
“Mayor LaFrance made a public announcement that the police were at fault”
Suzanne, cite your source for this, and don’t equivocate.
For the record, based on what has been available from multiple sources thus far, I agree that the officers were justified in their actions. What I take exception with is reporting that is not grounded in facts. Prove me wrong.
It’s all there. Read it for yourself in the link. “We cannot, and we will not accept this as a new normal in Anchorage. We lost a young person in our community who should have been starting her first day of school today. We cannot take back the pain associated with this loss, but we can do everything in our power to make sure this doesn’t happen again in Anchorage. An outside entity will audit APD’s policies and practices and recommend changes to reduce officer-involved shootings. Unlike internal investigations or the courts, the outside entity will not limit its analysis to what is legally permissible. The entity will prepare a public report so that the community has visibility into the changes within the department.” That, Wlmleitch, is the same as saying the police were at fault. You didn’t read the linked story but it is obvious to the rest of us that LaFrance was going after the police officer and the entire police force. They all realize now that this outside investigation will go outside the normal practices and go beyond “what is legally permissible.” Police will die as they are second-guessed by this shameful mayor who hates law enforcement. Anchorage is going to be a lot like San Fran under this wretched mayor.
Agreed, it is the other side of the “Defund” crowd. If you can’t defund, you can hamstring and investigate police to become completely ineffectual and demoralized. This child was her foil to stick it to the police. Despicable!
Police won’t die, nor will anyone die by police hands.
Sadly, instead, police response will be the ever more frequent ’Smile and Wave’ where criminals do criminal things and officers don’t respond in a timely or effective fashion because they know they’ll be crucified by politicians and press and families of criminals.
And I wouldn’t blame the police.
I’m not saying that this or any of the recent APD shootings have been right or wrong, or legally justified or not. But police are not emotional counselors. Every time armed police respond to a call there is the possibility of a deadly outcome. Everyone that calls for a police response already knows this, including Mayor LaFrance, community organizers, religious leaders, and lawyers.
Have a stable married family before having children, raise your children to be moral and just, and (for their sake) if they have psychological problems get them help before you have to call police.
She literally posted the video of our mayoress’s response.
Don’t you think maybe a Taser would have done the job? A gun was used instead and now everyone has to live with guilt, regret, and sorrow. For sure the officers are justified in defending themselves, but is lethal force the only way? I smell a hint of scenario fulfillment.
You are more than welcome to join the APD and see for yourself if you want to stop the perp with a taser, that a lot of times has no effect, or be a pin cushion for a wacko!!
Without a doubt, the officers involved know that they could have used less force, regret that they didn’t, and will spend the rest of their lives trying to justify to themselves that they did the only thing they could. But they will never really convince themselves of it.
WTD, there is no evidence for your assertion. This was close proximity with other individuals in the apartment including children, to whom she posed an immediate threat. She did not comply with commands and relinquish the knife, instead came towards the officers. Usually the sight of a firearm is a deterrent for the majority of individuals.
You sit in your comfy place and second guess, yet you sound like those idiots, who believe Hollywood, where they shoot the gun out of the bad guy’s hand. Reality is starkly different. Will this affect the police officers involved? Absolutely, but at the end of the day they protected a family from a dangerous person.
No.
Those officers have families.
They want to go home every night to see their loved ones.
If you opt to deploy a weapon, in close quarters, against a police officer – expect to get shot.
These officers deal with scum, mentally deranged, addicts, thugs, career criminals, sex offenders every day.
Do stupid sh!!, win stupid prizes.
don’t you think maybe she should have just dropped the knife?
we keep hearing all this push for police reform, how about society stop raising sh*t heads?
The young girl didn’t speak much English.
This is an English-speaking country, it’s up to her to learn the language.
English is not a requirement to understand that you don’t approach 2 police holding guns with a knife in your hand.
16 is old enough to know better.
I saw the video. This girl, tragic as it was, brought this about.
Dog; Taser rate is 40% ineffective, also depends on the thickness of clothing and accuracy. I’d like to see the police cam.
Summarize; The education of our youth and new comers would go far to deter violent assaults and crime, for without law and order, we do not have civilization.
OK. And how effective is a 16-year old girl with a small kitchen knife that isn’t even being raised against two beefy cops with bulletproof vests? And by the way, she didn’t speak much English either, so that is probably part of the reason she didn’t follow commands. Oh, and both cops had Tasers so that would make it 80%.
Scenario fulfillment is a thing.
You are an amazing armchair quarterback. Having never been in a situation like this yourself, what gives you the right to offer critique? In this socialist style world we live in now thanks to useless commentators who have never… Sometimes a shot or two of leadacillin is just what is needed, especially after multiple repeated warnings. The police are societies friends and they keep the crazies at bay. Everyone should remember, comply and deescalate, then challenge whatever you like legally. If you are right then you will be exonerated.
Thats bull. No offense but this page is specifically intended for us to critique, complain, explain, and offer opinions.
A knife is a VERY effective weapon and can do incredible permanent damage in a very short time. It does not take years of training to operate and it is easy to control. It has a rather short range but once inside that range it is as deadly as a firearm.
The claim that she did not speak much English is a false argument. The use of “much” and “Probably” suggests that you are clutching straws to relieve this girl of responsibility and assign any fault to the police when it makes zero difference. When someone comes at you with a deadly weapon, you are morally ethical and legally obligated to defend yourself with whatever means necessary.
Lunge range…the distance a perpetrator can cover before an officer is able to pull their weapon and fire in defense. 15 feet was the distance for a long time but in recent times its been extended to 20 ft. A Taser would be even further as arming and target acquisition takes longer. Add to this a knife easily pierces body armour.
Based on the history of our local justice system, we see violent offenders get arrested and released quickly without reform. Further causing mayhem in our communities.
This situation is terrible, but after what the APD have been through in the past years, it seems the more simple solution is “The Dead Can’t Re-offend”.
Unfortunately from the human perspective, death is a scary thing and a permanent loss (which is an illusion). Fortunately from a higher perspective, the soul is everlasting and will have an opportunity to reincarnate to resolve their karma in another life.
Hope they figure it out next time before pulling out a knife and threatening others.
Watcher; If humans have souls, then every creature on this planet and sextillions of other planets have souls and remember, DNA proves we have primates sharing planet earth with us.
Summarize; Religion is a man made invention to stave off the fear of death.
3rd Generation Alaskan.
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
You need to watch videos where tasers don’t work on some people.
Time for another booster shot.
Not a good idea to charge a cop with any type of deadly weapon, be you man, woman, child or beast.
Where does this young girl “charge”? Another MRK story says “lunge”. At no time does this girl do either.
I still can’t understand how other tools like a taser weren’t used. There were two cops, one could have used less than lethal force.
Please read my above reply to your question.
She approached them with a deadly weapon in her hand and refused to drop the weapon.
How close should they let her get?
This outcome all comes back on the suspect.
Good to hear. The officer should not have been charged.
This is good news. Tragic, obviously, for the girl, but equally so for the officer who must live with this in his mind for the rest of his life. ADN and Mayor LaFrance should be apologizing to this officer for tarring and feathering him with guilt of murder. The family even more so for doing the same thing.
I want to be careful not to “victim blame” here but it was interesting that this young woman was only recently in the US. Had she already been a behavior problem back in her home country? Maybe she was sent to live with a sister to see if she could get straightened out? Just some questions that came to my mind when I first read about this.
Whidbey, APD is always looking for smart, brave and caring people, go ahead, sign up.
Unfortunately not possible, but if I were the officer, I would have Tased. Like the Marines say: “Don’t kill nuthin’ that don’t need killin'”.
Claims like this are much easier to make than to live. The police go through training the likes of which you probably have never encountered. They also see things daily on the streets that again are likely outside of your scope of experience.
In my minds I can see me expertly grabbing her wrist, making her drop the knife, cuffing her and the crowd cheering as I perp-walked her out.
But that’s not reality. The reality is if the knife makes contact with you anywhere on the body you start bleeding profusely, assuming you survive, (which is kind of a stretch) you have a permanent scar, nerve damage, possible permanent use of a limb. And a long painful recovery. Again, IF you survive.
The Marines don’t say that. Stop being ignorant.
The video tells all. The officers did all they could to deescalate the situation, including the family. They gave more than adequate warning, she decided to come at the officer with what looks like less than 10 feet. Totally justified.
I noticed the radio news on this story said, “Officer escapes charges ….”, I found that to be poorly worded. It made it sound as though he was getting away with something. I don’t think he escaped anything. A sad situation all the way around.
Was it the radio station George Soros recently bought to use as propaganda to destroy whats left of America?
Lack of education comes with a hefty price to pay.
Who was her mentor or did she not have one?…maybe died young as well.
There are basic life threatening skills that need to be taught early like staying away from the edge of a cliff or not crossing a busy street.
A 40% chance plus a 40% chance…according to the post above equals 80%.
Too bad there wasn’t a 3rd officer and it would be a 120% chance!
Really?
Besides the fact that the 40% chance is totally made up to begin with…
Claims like this are much easier to make than to live. The police go through training the likes of which you probably have never encountered. They also see things daily on the streets that again are likely outside of your scope of experience.
In my minds I can see me expertly grabbing her wrist, making her drop the knife, cuffing her and the crowd cheering as I perp-walked her out.
But that’s not reality. The reality is if the knife makes contact with you anywhere on the body you start bleeding profusely, assuming you survive, (which is kind of a stretch) you have a permanent scar, nerve damage, possible permanent use of a limb. And a long painful recovery. Again, IF you survive.
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