anage police face away from me welcome back to the civil rights lawyer where we test the boundaries between law enforcement and civil liberties and today we're looking in a heart-wrenching case from Anchorage Alaska where a teenager's life was tragically cut short we're talking about the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Easter Leafa by an Anchorage police officer an incident that sparked considerable outrage and debate there locally in Alaska about Police use of force on August 13th 2024 Anchorage police responded to a 911 call involving Easter Lea who was reported to have threatened her sister with a knife we're going to try to talk to her and try to work through everything so safely get her gun the kids are in here now they're crying cuz they're pointing guns nobody's pointed any guns are you going to point that to her if she comes at with a knife yes she's not going to come with we don't know that and you don't know that what we're trying to do is escalate the situation I mean deescalate the situation what followed was a series of events that ended with officer Alexander Roman discharging his weapon leading to Easter's death the state of Alaska's Department of Law after reviewing the case concluded that the officer's actions were legally Justified all the footage was released and I'll link all of that below after reviewing all that footage and after after reading the entire report I have some problems let's go through the footage and I'll show you what I'm talking about was this shooting Justified or not you be the jury here leave your verdict in a comment your non-compliance could result in injury I don't want to hurt you we have lethal we have less lethal options we have taser we have K9 we have 40mm launcher okay before we dive in you may have noticed my new glasses as most most of you already know my eyes have taken a beating but these custom blue light glasses actually have helped tremendously so if you're like me and you spend way too much time looking 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available for 24 hours just click on the links in the top of my description box to get all the details once again thank you to glassesusa.com for sponsoring my eyes and also today's video on August 13th 2024 at 2332 hours APD officers were dispatched to 4,000 block of East 43rd Avenue in reference to a domestic violence disturbing involving a knife between two family members inside an apartment let's look at this from a legal perspective from the very beginning the justification of deadly force typically hinges on whether the officer reasonably believed that there was an imminent threat of serious bodily harm or death to themselves or others here the presence of a knife as reported in this 911 call sets the stage for this legal issue time what's location of the emergency I have my sister here and she's acting up over some s [ __ ] how old is the sister holding a KN she's only 16 she's how old she's 16 okay and what is she doing with the knife she's trying to stop me why cuz I didn't do what she cuz you mad and why is she mad I didn't do what she wanted me to do okay and where is she at right now she's outside the balcony she's outside yeah okay does she still have the night yes okay who else is in the house with you um almost something in here and including my mom as well two officers arrived in separate vehicles and began searching the scene after being unable to find the subject officers one and two went to contact the complainant in their second floor apartment and learned the subject was on the balcony of that apartment North unit 7 1118 with a knce plan says her 16-year-old sister's holding a knife and trying to stab her 11 alpha 1 and 12 alpha 1 I have you diver around our suspect's going to be an a Simone female wearing a black hoodie black short complaints saying the suspect is now outside of the building and still has the knife in her possession looks like the suspect half fre 43's been outside at least 2 minutes and our complainant stayed inside so she no longer has a visual of where her sister's at outside your sister have access to Vehicles we're still to find out and the knife appears to be some type of kitchen knife used to cut vegetables it's got a black handle on it and no access to vehicles Anchorage please hi she's gone no she's still outside she you know where she's at no she's at the Bony well she's on the balcony right now no she's sitting outside the balcony she's going to be on the uh the other side no she's west side of the building she's on the ground level where's she at on the balcony right here she on the balcony out here okay like she's in the apartment so yeah an important fact here is that this family was speaking Samoan for the most part so there was a language barrier when the officers went inside according to the police none of them were able to speak Samoan however the family members that were communicating with the officers were able to speak English can we get the kiddos out of here does she still have the knife with her no she just okay can you can you get up and leave too just please for safety reasons cuz I don't if we have a confrontation I don't want to deal with you and her do anything I don't know what she's going to do neither of you please leave we're just asking you just to move further back that's all okay that's all we're asking hey we need some more in the apartment to help manage these folks they're being a little bit 1032 oh my gosh so does she still have the knife with her do we know if she still has the knife with her I don't know I was in room okay no no we don't want any I need you guys to go back into the room that way we don't want to have any other conversations with her or if it gets escalated he we need some units in here to help with crowd control we're trying to deal with the family before we confront the suspect to deal with something further okay so just step back for now please no we just need some more point to her if she comes at us with a knife yes she's not come we don't know that and you don't know that what we're trying to do is escalate the situation I mean deescalate the situation which means we're trying to prevent her from doing anything further I don't think you guys coming in with those to her she's right now we're trying to protect you and her this has nothing to do with us this is between her and her that's fine but right now we need all of you to move back in case things get out of hand we don't want that happening but we needed to move back please to the other rooms can you please do that you want to do it in the safest way possible out don't want that happen we need to move backwards to the other room can you please do that we want to do it in the safest way possible she's not even that she's she's never like that really not like that she's not like that then if that's the case that's going to cause some problems we we're going to try to talk to her and try to work through everything so we get guns the kids are in here now they're crying cuz they're pointing guns nobody's I know it's a situation can give us a little bit of space does she still have can you turn phone off or if he needs to watch it to keep him calm can he go into a room with you she does she still have the knife with her this is this is honestly not the first time this has ever happened this is it was always like this between them at home back at home but for her to call you guys because of this [ __ ] this okay I don't know I don't know what's going on I'm sure you guys talk to the other off right but my concern right now is if she still has the knife with her is it okay if I to like crack the door we can't let you get close because we got to make sure you're safe too let you get CL wasting a whole buch of time guys just go in the other room we could do our business safely we can talk to her we can deal with her and then we can talk to you guys right now you're throwing a whole bunch of wrenches in the mix that doesn't need to be throwing a what you're you're throwing a wrench in this you're making this harder for us cuz we're having to focus on your safety our safety and hers instead of just our safety and hers I'm just trying to make sure that my sister's okay so are we that's our goal here okay can you please go into the other room so we can focus on okay if I just stand here I would prefer you went into the other room if you guys want to stand in the doorway that means in the doorway where you are everybody needs to be behind you once additional officers arrived on scene the family was moved into a bedroom doorway allowing officers one and two to contact the subject officer one opened a sliding glass door to the balcony and the subject was observed sitting with a blanket over her head covering her body officer one attempted verbal contact with the subject ordering her to show her empty hands to demonstrate she was no longer armed the subject did not respond to officer one's commands during additional attempts at contact officer one conveyed to the subject that failure to comply with commands could result in harm and that several methods to gain compliance could be used the subject still did not respond to officer one's commands eventually the subject stood up and turned towards the officers with a knife in her right hand she began to advance towards the officers and was commanded multiple times to drop the knife as officer one and two move backwards to create more distance ultimately officer one discharged his service weapon while officer to discharge a 40mm launcher at the subject so we can see that there was tension at the scene family members were concerned about the escalation of what was happening due to the presence of the armed police officers who are now in the apartment and they're ready to potentially shoot the 16-year-old girl clearly and the law usually sides with law enforcement so long as those officers can articulate why they believe there was some IM iment threat but here's where we must ask the critical questions was every effort made to deescalate this situation could alternative methods such as tasers or negotiation have been employed this family's pleas to the officers to deescalate the situation to calm things down appears to have been completely sidelined which raises concerns about the protocols that were followed due to what was clearly a mental health crisis or a disturbance involving a minor not only that but where there's a language barrier everybody needs to be behind you okay they're right here well this doesn't give us any stand off hey go ahead and show me your hands show me open empty hands it's the Anchorage police if you do not comply you could be injured open empty hands we are not going away take a coup steps back we want to help you can we get her first name what's her first name what's that I need to see open empty hand hands please show them I can't see them from behind you put them above your head please please show me open empty hands your non-compliance could result in injury I don't want to hurt you we have lethal we have less lethal options we have taser we have K9 we have 40 mm launcher okay face away for me if we slow the video down this is the last frame before the firing begins and slowing it down in that way you can tell who fired first that's important and here's why officer number one who's closest to her he has his pistol his firearm I believe it was a 40 caliber aimed at her he's closest behind him in a little bit to his right is another officer officer number two has a 40 mm launcher this is basically non-deadly Force this is meant to stop a threat but not kill the individual but he's behind the officer with the deadly force weapon and again he's just off to the right so if we look at the very first frame where the firing begins you can see that it was not officer one who fired his firearm first it was officer number two who fired the 40 mm first we see that actually entering the body cam footage of Officer number one who is closest we see the projectile flying through the air we see this smoke and only afterwards does officer number one begin firing his actual deadly force firearm and I believe he fires four rounds in quick succession the other two officers in the room their body cams are on they fire no shots that's important I'll tell you why this is the report from the state of Alaska Department of Law I'll post this in its entirety at the blog post linked below this is what it says though given the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident when evaluated under relevant Alaska law this office will not be filing criminal charges against officer Roman in this matter who was the shooter officer Roman's use of deadly force against Lea was legally Justified under Alaska Statutes as self-defense or defense of others as officer Roman's conduct was legally justified in this matter criminal charges are not appropriate in this case the most important factor in that analysis is whether or not there was some immediate threat of serious bodily injury or death to either the police officers or anyone else the decision of the shooter to shoot must be reasonable in light of the totality of all of the circumstances if you go through the Anchorage report we do not see the direct interview of the four officers who were in the room we have the investigators conclusions of what the officers allegedly told the investigators and if you read it you can see that this is clearly the government is assisting these officers in saying what they need to say to be able to shut the case to close the case as this being justified now what the shooter says and what the officer who shot the 40 mm um launcher says I mean that's sort of predictable but like I said let's look at the other two officers who were in the back back of the room because we have their body cams as well but before we look at that we have some of the things that those officers allegedly said during their interviews now I don't know which officer is which they identify the officers by numbers but in the report they identify them by name one of the officers in the rear who did not fire was officer Kyle pasta according to the report officer pasta indicated that miss Lea was probably 8 ft or maybe closer to the officers Officer aasta said there was nothing between her and the officer ERS except the open door officer pasta indicated that he started to get his taser out of his holster he said he thought he might be able to deploy his taser if officer fen's 40mm was not effective Kyle pasta also said that Easter lefa was within 5T of officers Roman and F and ferson and holding the knife when he heard three to five shots officer pasta said he began to get his pistol ready because he believed Easter Lea could have stumbled and injured the nearby officers with a knife he noted that with two or three quote lunge steps Easter Lea would have been able to seriously injure either officer the other officer in the back was Jose Maldonado now according to this report officer Maldonado said that he saw them back up a couple of steps which was as far as they could in the space officer Maldonado indicated that he saw misle a look in the direction of Officer Roman and officer ferson while holding the knife in her right hand offic officer Maldonado stated that the blade of the knife was pointed towards the officers Officer Maldonado said Easter Lea Lea took a step towards the officers Officer Maldonado said when he saw Easter Leal walking towards the officers with a knife his immediate concern was that the officers were within 4 feet of Easter Lea officer Maldonado said he knows how little time it can take for someone with a knife to close that length of distance so in this report in these interviews these officers are giving very specific information that is either coming from the lawyers or from the Department itself they're giving specific numbers about how close Easter Lea was and reasons why the shooters or the shooter officer Roman could not back up any further they're saying the right things to make it look like in writing there was this immediate threat and that officer Roman had no choice he had no choice it's unfortunate it's tragic but he had no choice but when we actually look at the body cam from the officers in the rear does it show something a little different than what this report says in black and white I need to see open empty hands please show them I can't see them from behind you put them above your head please now I'm not sure if that's officer pasta or Maldonado but clearly this guy does not sense some sort of immediate deadly force style safety threat it almost looks like he has his hands in his pocket he's turning his back to this threat he's walking back and forth he looks fairly disinterested in fact when you look at it in slow motion he only shows interest once his colleagues start shooting he did not even have his pistol out despite the knowledge that this knife was as far as they knew still in her possession and that it was a scary knife and also look how much space there is behind the officers that said they had no choice there was no way that they could back up they were basically cornered I mean he's pacing around there's so much room and soon as his buddies start shooting I mean he literally moves way out of the way they had plenty of room to back up please show me open empty hands your non-compliance could result in injury I don't want to Hur you we have lethal we have Les Ops we have haer we have K9 we have 40 mm launcher okay face away from me did you see how quickly he was able to react and say uhoh maybe there is a problem here I need to be on my guard I need to pull my pistol out and also just like you know like we used to do in football that was like a karaa or whatever they call it like sideways across the room there was plenty of room there the fact is is that the officer in the front which he shouldn't have been in the front if they have this 40 mm non-deadly weapon why wasn't that guy in the front and in fact he fired first what's the point of having the 40 mm launcher if you're going to start firing the actual 40 caliber deadly bullets soon as the guy with a non-deadly launcher fires I mean it makes no sense they escalated the situation completely unnecessarily they didn't need to close the distance with this woman with the knife when they could have given it more distance she never started running at them she was walking there was a language barrier there was no threatening gesture with a knife that you can see on the video she was merely in possession of the knife and we just went over this in another Anchorage police case a few videos ago and I discussed the recent ninth circuit opinion in kangi versus city of San Jose I will repost that at the blog post link below but basically it says this cops can't just shoot a guy for mere possession of a gun just because he has a gun they can't say drop the gun and then shoot him and arguably it's the same thing with a knife or even more so they can't just shoot somebody because they're in possession of a knife there has to be more did she make any threatening gesture with knife well she didn't obey their orders but they also knew that there was a language barrier they also knew that this was a 16-year-old child who was in distress we don't know if there was a choice they fired too quickly here they could have given her some more space they could have tried just the 40 mm launcher instead of putting a 40 caliber bullet into her heart they're the ones who are supposed to be protecting and serving why not protect the 16-year-old who clearly is in distress there were four police officers in the room out of the four two of them did not have their guns out because they did not they clearly did not sense that she was any imminent threat to them that was just later in writing their behaviors that we see on video show our eyes something completely different the officer in the front Romano who should not have been there he fired unnecessarily he was too close he was basically putting himself in the path of danger unnecessarily that did not have to be done and you know what they know that that's why they got every officer in the room to make these comments like oh she was 4 feet away and she was closing the distance I was worried that even she would trip and stab them to death with a knife she never made a threatening gesture with a knife she never even raised the knife before being shot to death while clearly police officers can shoot somebody with a knife who is walking towards them with a knife and refusing orders to drop the knife that doesn't mean that we don't look at the particular circumstances to see if it was reasonable in the way that they did it under these circumstances they had plenty of room to back up some nobody was in any immediate danger yet it was close and it was getting there everyone in that room knows that the officer in front acted too quickly and I would argue that that action was unreasonable but let me know what you think in the comments do you think that that officer acted reasonably in shooting the 16-year-old what would your verdict be and if you like going through these types of cases Please Subscribe both here and at the blog at the civils lawyer.com remember our rights don't end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with it