Shootout with police at South Anchorage Walmart leaves man dead and officer injured, police chief says

Anchorage police shot and killed a shoplifting suspect, who also allegedly shot two officers, during an attempted arrest at a Walmart on the city’s southside late Tuesday.

That’s according to Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case, who shared preliminary details of the incident in a press conference with news media Wednesday morning.

One officer remained hospitalized in stable condition Wednesday after the shoplifting suspect shot him in the lower body, Case said. Another officer was shot in the chest, but protective armor stopped the shots, the police chief said.

“We almost lost an officer last night, probably two, at what took place,” Case said. “This went from a simple misdemeanor arrest to a very violent act at the snap of a finger in close quarters.”

Case described a chaotic struggle between the man – whose name police have not yet released – and three officers responding to a reported shoplifting at the Walmart store on the Old Seward Highway near Dimond Boulevard at about 10:25 p.m. Tuesday.

Walmart staff had stopped the man and brought him to a loss prevention office at the store, because they believed he had some stolen merchandise that was hidden on his person, Case said. The man was sitting in the office with Walmart employees when officers arrived, Case said.

In the small room, the officers were getting some basic information when the man tried to flee, Case said.

“The three officers and the suspect went down to the ground,” Case said. “During the struggle, the suspect fired rounds at one of the officers that hit him twice in the lower body. The suspect then fired some additional rounds that struck another officer in the chest. That round was stopped by a ballistic plate in his vest.”

Case said officers were unaware the man had a gun on him until he began firing.

The officer struck in the chest returned fire, killing the man, Case said.

“The officer that was struck in the lower body was immediately transported to a local hospital,” he said. “The other two officers that were in the room also sustained injuries, and they went to the hospital later and were cleared.”

Case said the shooting was contained to the loss prevention office and did not spill out into the rest of the store.

Calls to Walmart went unanswered Wednesday morning. An Anchorage Reddit user who said they were at the store described employees rushing shoppers out after the shooting.

The store remained closed Wednesday as yellow tape blocked the entrance and investigators appeared to be inside analyzing the scene.

Under Anchorage Police Department policy, the names of the officers involved in the incident will be released after 72 hours. Case said the officers were part of the department’s Patrol Division.

This is the third fatal police shooting in Anchorage so far in 2026 and the fifth police shooting overall. Case said the city has seen “too much gun violence” in recent months and that the community needs to come together to address solutions.

“The Anchorage Police Department is going to keep these conversations going even if these conversations lead to criticism on how we do and conduct our business,” Case said. “We are open for all the conversations, so that we can move forward as a community to see some of these numbers go down.”