Jeremiah Shultz and his wife were sitting at their kitchen table in Midtown Anchorage last week when they heard the gunfire.
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“I’ve never heard so many bullets fly in such a short amount of time,” Shultz said in an interview. “It was terrifying, and instinctively we both dropped to the ground right away.”
It was around 8 p.m. on Sept. 13. According to Anchorage police, 29-year-old Maquire Levi opened fire at officers, who shot back. It happened outside a single-family home on East 37th Avenue, just a few houses down from Shultz.
For Shultz and his neighbors, the shooting was just the latest in a string of incidents at the home. He said he and others have witnessed assaults, drug deals and other crimes there for months. So while the recent gunfire was alarming, it wasn’t necessarily surprising.
As police have released more details about the shooting, it has also brought renewed attention to the home where it happened — a single-family house on East 37th Avenue. Neighbors like Shultz say they’ve witnessed assaults, drug deals and other crimes there. So while the recent gunfire was alarming, they say it wasn’t necessarily surprising.
“It’s a constant revolving door for people coming and going that are engaged in various illicit things,” Shultz said.
Some neighbors don’t let their kids play outside anymore, Shultz said. He said at least one other neighbor didn’t feel safe in the area anymore after a different shooting earlier in the year.
“The neighbor across the street decided to move because he found his two little boys — 8 and 6 — they were on the floor,” Shultz said. “They had pulled the mattress off their bed, and they were hiding and crying. They were terrified, and so they moved.”
‘Tie it all together with criminal convictions’
At a press conference Monday, Police Chief Sean Case provided more details about the Sept. 13 shooting. Officers had previously said that, before the standoff, Levi assaulted an elderly man and stole his truck about 3 miles from the house.
“The suspect was on felony probation for a carjacking charge, and he had escaped approximately 10 days prior to this incident from a residential reentry facility,” Case added Monday.
Case said police later tracked the stolen truck down to the Midtown home and staked out the area for hours. Levi eventually walked out with a gun in his left pocket, which Case said was captured on police body cameras.
“What will be able to be seen on the video is that the suspect retrieves firearm from his left front pocket, points in the direction of officers, and fires at least one single round,” Case said. “Four officers fire rounds as a result, striking the suspect multiple times.”
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Levi was taken to a hospital by fire department medics, and survived the shooting. No officers were injured, police say.
Levi is now charged with three felonies, including possessing a gun as a felon and assault. More charges are expected related to the carjacking, Case said.
Case acknowledged that the house where Levi was shot has been a site of criminal activity for a while, and the department will pursue a criminal abatement of the property. That could lead to a range of outcomes, from a mandated closure of the home to holding the owner financially or criminally liable for illegal activity in violation of a court order.
“When you can tie it all together with criminal convictions and significant felony charges, that’s when you can start moving to criminally abate that property,” Case said. “Because the owner of the residence is not doing the things that he or she needs to do to make sure that location isn’t a nesting ground for criminal activity.”
It’s a similar process to what happened at the Chelsea Inn, which was seized by federal authorities after being what officials described as a drug trafficking den for years, Case said.
‘It’s on the radar’
Shultz, the neighbor, said even after the police shooting, crime hasn’t stopped at the property. He said his neighbors have reportedly seen drugs being dealt in a back alley, and he witnessed someone dropping off what looked like stolen merchandise the next day.
“Not even 12 hours after the forensics packed up, a truck showed up at 6 in the morning when my wife was letting the dogs out,” Shultz said. “A bunch of e-scooters and bicycles were unloaded into the garage, and then that truck promptly drove away and disappeared.”
Shultz said he hopes the criminal abatement will put an end to crime in his neighborhood, but he says it could take years.
“I’m not holding my breath because I can’t hold my breath that long,” Shultz said. “I’m glad it’s on the radar, but again, like just the day-to-day lives of our stress level of all my neighbors has
increased substantially.”
He said he doesn’t feel like he has any other options aside from continuing to call police about any serious crime he witnesses. Unlike some of his neighbors, he said, he can’t just move. He and his wife can’t afford to find a new home. And their home has sentimental value — it was built by his wife’s parents.
“Why should we leave,” Shultz said. “Why should we run away from this? I mean, why does this house get to be a blight on this neighborhood?”
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