“Say her name” signs flooded downtown Anchorage, Alaska, last week after a fatal police encounter between Anchor Police Department (APD) Officer Alexander Roman and a teenaged girl, according to Anchorage Daily News.
Many people holding her signs were members of the city’s Samoan population paying homage to one of their own — Easter Leafa, aged 16 years old at the time of her death Tuesday night.
One of Leafa’s older sisters said in an interview with Alaska’s News Source that Leafa had gotten into a fight with another sister when the situation escalated, and Leafa approached her sister with a knife.
“Once she made one movement — a little tiny movement — they fired — they shot her three times,” the sister said.
She recalled that the officers asked what Leafa’s name was, which she interpreted as officers having very little information on the case. They did not ask for additional information, such as the owner of the house or the girl’s parents, she said.
Another family member expressed concern for her children, who were in the residence at the time of Leafa’s death.
“When all this happened — the shooting started — I’m trying to go out because my kids are in the other room — they didn’t even know there were kids in there,” she explained. “So, if anything were to happen, my kids would’ve been hit too.”
Since Tuesday’s events, residents have marched through downtown Anchorage, with some calling for unedited body camera footage and changes in local policing, according to Anchorage Daily News. But ultimately, they marched for dialogue and peace, not protest, marchers noted.
Roman was placed on four days of administrative leave, according to a statement by the APD. Per state and departmental procedure, Alaska’s Office of Special Prosecutions will review whether the shooting can be legally validated.
While the statement originally mentioned an investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs, Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has since announced that a third party would be investigating the situation instead, according to Alaska Public Media.
Polynesian Association of Alaska Head Lucy Hansen organized a vigil for Leafa on Friday, where she shared the community’s woes around children and their trust in law enforcement, Alaska Public Media reported in a separate article.
“Our young kids are very afraid now to the point that if they call the police, are they going to come,” Hansen said. “Are they going to come and save them, or they’re going to come and kill them, you know?”
LaFrance and APD Police Chief Sean Case announced departmental changes at a press conference on Thursday, according to Alaska Public Media.
LaFrance and Case acknowledged that deaths related to police encounters have been on the rise this year, and changes to officer training are necessary.
Leafa migrated from American Samoa for a better education and would have started her junior year of high school in the fall.
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I am so sorry for their loss of their family member. I deeply urge and hope they get grief counseling and therapy because they are obviously traumatized.
THESE ACTIONS BY APD AT THE SCENE ARE INEXCUSABLE, AND UNACCEPTABLE. ARREST THEM NOW! Let the community the girl is from have them, give those cowards to the family and walk away!