Anchorage officers cleared in Kristopher Handy killing, as police release body camera video

The Department of Law said that four Anchorage police officers were “legally justified” for shooting and killing a man earlier this year in a Sand Lake neighborhood, according to an Office of Special Prosecutions review.

The four Anchorage Police Department officers — Sgt. Noel Senoran, Officer Jacob Jones, Officer Jacob Ostolaza, and Officer James Stineman — were involved in the shooting in the early morning hours of May 13 that left 34-year-old Kristopher Handy dead outside his Bearfoot Drive apartment.

Police initially said they responded to a domestic disturbance call when Handy emerged from the apartment with squad car lights shining at him.

In a previously released security video provided to Alaska’s News Source, Handy appears with a long gun pointed downward at his right side. He doesn’t appear to raise the gun in the video.

At least 10 shots can be heard as Handy immediately collapsed to the ground, where his body laid, according to neighbors, for several hours. Handy died on the scene.

In the months since the shooting, community members and organizations have called for the release of the police body cam footage in what they call efforts for transparency.

In the press conference, Case explained what the four body cam videos show as officers attempted to engage with Handy.

The review by the Office of Special Prosecutions that was made available depicts the scene, starting with the call at 2:13 a.m. to police that a “disturbance” was taking place in Handy’s apartment, where he lived with his fiancée Harmony Stitt. A neighbor told investigators that Handy and Stitt had a contentious relationship.

Testimony from Stitt revealed that Handy had been drinking after getting his shotgun from his parent’s house earlier in the day, where he argued with his mother. Stitt said she believed Handy had mixed alcohol with depression medication, and at one point tried to take the gun from him.

Stitt told investigators that after trying to quell the situation with Handy, he said to her, “No, screw it, I want you to watch when they mow me down.”

“Stitt stated she was scared that ‘he wanted it to happen,’ but she was hoping someone would be smart enough to realize Handy was just depressed,” the review states.

The review also includes a statement from Case explaining that Handy was “charging” at officers from his apartment when he was shot.

Jacob Jones, one of the four officers at the scene, told investigators that he fired his gun at Handy because he was “afraid that Handy was going to shoot him because he was caught out in the open” as Handy was walking towards the officers, and that he thought Handy would shoot one of the other officers too.

In his interview with investigators, Officer Jacob Ostolaza said that Handy had “raised a long gun above his head” — an action that Officer James Stineman also corroborated — something that previous security footage did not appear to show.

The review shows a consensus that Handy did not listen to the officer’s commands to stop and drop his gun as he yelled obscenities at them.