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.”
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” for shooting and killing Handy.
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.
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