Yellow crime scene tape, flashing lights and the Juneau Police Department’s Mobile Incident Command Center are simply out of place on quiet, rain-soaked Ocean View Drive.
The isolated neighborhood on the outskirts of Juneau woke to gunfire early Saturday morning when Juneau police shot a man they said didn’t comply with an officer’s instructions. The man is expected to survive.
According to the Juneau Police Department, this was Juneau’s first officer-involved shooting in almost 10 years.
Eric Forrer is building a house in the area and was awake early in the morning.
“4:30 in the morning … gunshot.” (It) got my attention, Forrer said. “I’m thinking, somebody spotted a deer somewhere. Then lots of lights, lots of traffic, I didn’t stick my head out the door.”
Forrer said he went out later at a “decent hour” and asked his son who lives next door, “What happened?”
“Well, I woke up to gunshots … gunshot, gunshots, (I’m) not really sure,” Leif Forrer said.
He held his baby boy as he recalled that he saw flashing “strobe lights” through his windows and realized that something was seriously wrong. He put on his clothes, went into the street and asked his neighbors what they knew.
“An officer arrived on scene shortly there after and asked me to go home,” Leif Forrer said. “He was real polite and answered my questions and made me feel safe in that I was wondering if they were looking for someone or had someone at large.”
He said the officer told him there wasn’t a manhunt and everything was under control.
“So I came home and locked my doors and basically just told my wife what was going on,” he said.
According to Juneau Police Department, a 38-year-old Juneau resident was shot by police after he and another man crashed into a ditch in the 16500 block of Ocean View Drive. They haven’t been identified.
Juneau Police Chief Bryce Johnson said at a press conference Saturday that the man who was shot did not follow officers’ orders and one of the officers felt he had to shoot him.
“The man who was shot has been medevaced to Seattle and is expected to survive. We understand he is in serious, but stable condition,” Johnson said.
Johnson said police did not find a weapon at the scene. He said the two officers involved in the shooting are on administrative leave while their actions are investigated. Per department policy, he said their names won’t be released until Monday at the earliest.
“My detectives have been on scene since early this morning preserving and cataloging evidence,” Johnson said. “The investigators from the Alaska Bureau of Investigations will be in town shortly. They will have full and complete access to the scene and will conduct their investigation.”
Johnson said the Juneau District Attorney, James Scott, will also have access to the scene.
Scott said he will be joining the investigation alongside the state Department of Law’s Office of Special Prosecutions, and the Alaska Bureau of Investigation as part of a new protocol for officer-involved shootings statewide.
“Unfortunately it’s a practice that the Office of Special Prosecutions has had an opportunity to develop with regard to officer-involved shootings in Fairbanks and Anchorage,” Scott said.
Johnson said he doesn’t know when the investigation will end. He estimated it could take several weeks – depending on the information they uncover.
“Our goal is to conduct a very thorough, very professional, very transparent investigation so we can give very clear answers for what occurred and why what occurred happened,” he said.
No charges have been filed against the man who was shot. Johnson said he has had run-ins with police before and he said in the past, the victim has made threats to harm police officers.
Police will be using the officers’ vehicle dash cam video and audio recordings to help piece together what happened. Police said road access to the part of Ocean View Drive where the shooting occurred would most likely be partially shut down until late Saturday.
Leif Forrer didn’t seem worried about the road closure. He said he was happy that the police reached the scene quickly and were doing their jobs.
Editor’s note: A line was added to this story to clarify that police did not find a weapon at the scene.
