One man was killed early Saturday in a downtown Anchorage shooting, and responding officers shot and wounded another man who witnesses said had been involved, according to police.

According to an Anchorage Police Department statement, officers were making a bar-break patrol on the 700 block of West 4th Avenue at about 2:25 a.m. The officers then heard gunfire from a parking lot on the southeast corner of H Street and West 3rd Avenue, near the Nesbett Courthouse.

Police said that gunfire was from an “altercation” in the parking lot, which left one man dead at the scene and a second shot in the lower body.

“The number of shooters, who they are, the motive behind the shooting, and whether the parties involved were known to one another are all under investigation,” police said. “Multiple people fled the scene once the parking lot shooting occurred.”

As the patrol officers responded, police said, witnesses pointed out a man to them and said he had been involved in the shooting.

“Officers engaged the male, who was armed with a gun, near 3rd Avenue and G Street,” police said in the statement. “Two officers discharged their weapons, striking the adult male in the upper and lower body.”

Police have not named the man killed during the initial encounter in the parking lot. The two injured men were both taken to local hospitals. Police said the man wounded in the initial shooting had injuries that weren’t life-threatening, and the man shot by officers was in stable condition.

Police are asking anyone who saw the initial shooting and hasn’t yet spoken with investigators to contact them at 311. Drivers can expect street closures Saturday in the vicinity of both shooting scenes, which police say are being investigated separately.

The two officers involved in the subsequent shooting will be named in three days and have been placed on four days of administrative leave under standard APD policy, according to the statement. That shooting will be investigated first by the state Office of Special Prosecutions for any violations of state law, then by APD Internal Affairs for any violation of police policy.

Saturday’s encounter occurred as officers’ fatal shooting of Kristopher Handy at a Sand Lake apartment complex last month has placed the department under public scrutiny. APD Chief Designee Bianca Cross, appointed by outgoing Mayor Dave Bronson, said in a news conference hours after Handy’s May 13 death that he had raised a long gun at officers – a claim soon contradicted by a neighbor who said her surveillance footage showed otherwise. Cross also said that the four officers who shot Handy were wearing body cameras, but has said that footage will not be released until after an investigation, despite his family’s calls to do so immediately.

This story will be updated as additional details become available.

“There are certain sites that look almost like a milky orange juice.”

Rivers of Rust

Climate change is doing all sorts of weird things to the planet — from increased turbulence on plane trips to more stinging jellyfish in the ocean.

Now, remote rivers in the Alaska backcountry are turning from a pristine glacier blue to an alarming rusty bright orange, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications: Earth & Environment. Why? Thawing permafrost, caused by global warming, is releasing minerals like iron and toxic metals into rivers.

Researchers studied 74 streams in Brooks Range, a spectacular swath of mostly uninhabited mountains in the north of Alaska’s arctic region. They used satellite images to conclude that this color change has been happening over the last ten years as climate change has increased temperatures in the region — a startling illustration of the devastating effects global warming is having on some extremely remote parts of the world.

Orange Creamsicle

And judging by the pictures, it’s an off-putting hue that almost looks like it belongs on the surface of a different planet.

“There are certain sites that look almost like a milky orange juice,” said National Park Service ecologist and study lead author Jon O’Donnell in a statement.

“We’re used to seeing this in parts of California, parts of Appalachia where we have mining history,” University of California Davis professor of environmental toxicology and study coauthor Brett Poulin told CNN. “But it’s very startling to see it when you’re on some of the most remote wilderness and you’re far from a mine source.”

Downstream

Setting aside their unsettling color, the impact on the local environment is enormous, according to the researchers.

The thawing permafrost and mineral runoff — which includes lead, iron, zinc, copper, nickel, cadmium, and mercury — make the streams more cloudy and hence block more light, and are more acidic. This can impact plant and aquatic life with fish like salmon storing toxic minerals in their meaty flesh, according to the researchers.

And there are risks to human health as well. Many Alaskans who do subsistence fishing could be harmed — not to mention drinking water downstream that can be contaminated.

Researchers are now looking to identify more affected locations around Alaska to trace the metal and minerals back to their source.

But in the long term, the best solution would likely involve addressing the growing climate crisis.

More on climate change: Record Global Temperatures Drive Extreme Heatwaves in Oceans, Too