The Anchorage Police Department on Tuesday identified the two officers and suspect involved in a fatal weekend shooting, and police said the gun used by the suspect in Saturday’s shooting has now been linked to five Anchorage homicides.
APD identified the suspect in Saturday morning’s shooting as 40-year-old James Dale Ritchie.
Lt. John McKinnon, commander of the department’s homicide and robbery-assault section, said the Colt Python .357 Ritchie used has been linked to five other Anchorage homicides this summer, from early July through late August:
“The two victims at Post Road, the one victim at Bolin Street, and two from the Valley of the Moon Park,” McKinnon said.
Jason Netter and Brianna Foisy were killed July 3 on Post Road; Treyveonkindell Thompson was killed July 29 on Bolin Street; Bryant De Husson and Kevin Turner were killed Aug. 28 in Valley of the Moon Park.
McKinnon said detectives met with the victims’ families Tuesday morning to relay the new information.
APD Police Chief Chris Tolley identified the officers involved in Saturday’s shooting, beginning with injured officer Arn Salao, a five-year veteran of the department:
“He immediately returned gunfire and physically fought off his assailant,” Tolley said. “At the same time, as this is occurring, as second officer who’s in the area rolled up on the incident, and Sgt. Marc Patzke of our K9 Unit charged and returned fire. And together they were able to stop this individual.”
Ritchie was killed in the gun battle.
During the attack, Chief Tolley said Officer Salao was shot at least four times in the lower part of his body.
“Even though he was hit in the lower part of the body and entered into the body in the lower extremes, the gun… the bullets traveled and went up into the middle of his body, fracturing bones ripping apart muscle, ripping through his intestines and even lodging in the liver,” Tolley said.
Despite the seriousness of the injuries, Chief Tolley, said after two surgeries Officer Salao’s condition is now listed as stable.
“I’m happy to tell you despite some infections setting in over the weekend, we think we’re past that and the officer actually got up, he’s been moved out of ICU, and the officer been up and begun to try to take some steps,” Tolley said.
And after visiting the wounded officer Tuesday in the hospital, Chief Tolley said Officer Salao plans on taking even more steps.
Saturday’s incident began when Officer Salao made contact with James Ritchie while investigating a report a theft, stemming from a man who refused to pay his cab fare. But, Lieutenant McKinnon said Ritchie was not that man.
“I know that Mr. Ritchie was in the area during the event, and so we would contact people as if they were witnesses, if they saw anybody, ‘Hey, did you see someone matching this description?’ And so he is not the person that was involved in the cab theft,” McKinnon said.
And McKinnon said Ritchie’s motive for opening fire is not immediately clear.
“We are not sure what the suspect was thinking or what was going through his thoughts,” McKinnon said. “All we do know is that he immediately goes at the officer and produces a handgun and shoots at him multiple times.”
McKinnon said APD will not release video citing its graphic nature as well as an effort to preserve evidence in ongoing cases.
As part of its ongoing investigation, McKinnon said the case – along with the five homicides associated with the weapon – remains open.
McKinnon said investigators will continue to look into Ritchie’s past, including other places he may have lived, to find if there are any other cases to which he may be linked.
