ANCHORAGE - The fatal police shooting of a Mountain View man is raising questions across the city.
KTVA spoke with community members who are wondering why police used lethal force to subdue a man whose only weapon was a large stick.
26-year-old Shane Tasi was killed by an Anchorage police officer in his own front yard. That spot is quickly filling with flowers from friends who question why the father of three had to die.
“That was just excessive force,” said Joey Moore, a family friend. “It's ridiculous, now there's these orphans and family just not understanding why.”
Police were called to North Bunn Street Saturday evening after reports that a man carrying a large stick was yelling at cars, and neighbors and had hit a dog behind his Mountain View apartment. Several officers responded, including one who witnesses say ordered Tasi to drop the stick. When Tasi continued to approach the officer he was shot.
Laura Martin watched from across the street. “He friggin' shot the guy on the chest,” said Martin. “He should have got [him] on the arm, or the leg, or take out the mace or the taser, anything but that.”
But police say that isn’t the protocol if an officer feels his life is being threatened.
“If you have shoot, it's a deadly force situation,” said Lieutenant Dave Parker. “So they don't train us to shoot feet or hands, that's all TV stuff too. It's hard enough to hit a large target let alone a smaller target like a hand, or a foot or something like that.”
Police say this particular officer didn't have a taser, although they would like to equip more officers with the non-lethal weapons.
According to court records, Tasi had several DUI’s on his record, but no history of violent crimes.
APD said there will be a full investigation of what happened and whether the officer was justified in using deadly force.
