At around 3:00 PM on the day of the 2026 primary election, August 18, a woman pointed a gun out of a third-story apartment window at officers on the ground and at a school across the street which was being used as a polling place. The woman was shot in the upper body by an officer on the ground and pronounced dead on the scene.
Officers responded to a call from The Adelaide, which currently serves homeless individuals meeting low-income limits, at about 1:34 PM. The Adelaide is located on E. 9th Ave. across from Denali Montessori Elementary. The caller said that an intoxicated and suicidal woman was inside the building and had pointed a gun at two staff members of The Adelaide. Police employed various deescalation tactics through their mobile intervention team and crisis negotiators.
Police Chief Sean Case stated, “They were able to establish some contact throughout that hour and 3 minutes, although none of the contact was meaningful. They used loudspeakers, attempted phone contact, and were able to get just short spurts of contact with the female inside. We had on-duty SWAT members immediately respond with special equipment that they have available to them.”
Police also used a drone to monitor the front door of the woman’s apartment, evacuated the apartment complex, and notified the school across the street of the situation. The woman was told she was under arrest for two felonies of Fear Assault with a Gun. The woman was then seen pointing a gun out of a window at officers on the ground and Denali Montessori Elementary across the street. Then, an officer fatally shot the woman in the upper body.
“We had the right personnel, we had the right equipment, we had containment, we had communication, evacuation— like so many times that we’ve had calls like this in the past that have ended in a safe resolution and taking the individual into custody,” stated Chief Case. “Sometimes you just can’t control everything… sometimes we just can’t control the behavior of other people. And in this case, we had a suicidal, intoxicated individual that made a decision that put the public at risk.”
Per policy, the name of the involved officer will be released in 72 hours. This is the 7th Officer Involved Shooting of 2026.
The state’s Office of Special Prosecutions (OSP) will review the officer’s use of force and determine whether it was justified. Once that has been completed, APD Internal Affairs will review the officer’s actions to confirm whether there was any violation of policy. As per APD practice, the officer will be placed on administrative leave. Once OSP has completed their investigation, their findings will be available for the public to review.
