Juneau Police: Officer fatally shot woman who would not drop hatchet

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A Juneau Police officer fatally shot a 30-year-old Juneau woman who refused to drop a hatchet following a call for help at Valley Breeze-In convenience store early Christmas morning.

Juneau Police Deputy Chief Krag Campbell wrote in a prepared statement Wednesday afternoon that officers were responding to a call they received at 5:25 a.m. reporting a woman was screaming at people and had threatened the caller with a hammer. The hammer was later determined to be a hatchet.

“Three JPD officers responded to the scene and were immediately met by the female in the parking lot,” Campbell said. “The female began walking towards them with a hatchet in her hands. During the initial contact, the female was holding the hatchet and refused to follow requests and orders from the officers to put the hatchet down.”

While Campbell said a taser was deployed and struck the woman, he said when she kept walking toward an officer holding the hatchet he shot her.

The woman was not identified in the release, but the deputy chief said her next of kin had been notified.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for JPD said the department is working to release the name very soon. Alaska’s News Source made contact with a relative of the woman, but are waiting for police to release her name out of respect for the family.

“Thank you to all the members of our community who have come together to support the individuals and families affected by this incident,” Campbell wrote.

Campbell said the Alaska Bureau of Investigation is assisting the department in their investigation, which will then be reviewed by the State of Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions -- who will determine if lethal force was legally justified.

Campbell cited JPD policy, saying the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave, and their names would not be released until after the ABI interviews them as part of their investigation.

The 5:30 p.m. update followed a 7:30 a.m. update, saying JPD had closed down areas of Glacier Highway from the McNugget Intersection to Jordan Creek Center, including Trout Street, for their investigation.

This is the second JPD fatal officer-involved shooting in 2024.

This summer, the state cleared a JPD officer and Alaska Wildlife Trooper in the fatal July shooting of 35-year-old Steven Kissack, a homeless man who was well-known to Juneau residents, when state prosecutors found Kissack refused to drop a knife as he ran toward officers.

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