Saturday, May 18, 2013

Home
Man Shoots Platinum Jaxx Club Bouncer Over ID Check
Witnesses said a man who was trying to get into the club got upset when security staff wouldn’t let him in without proper ID. The situation quickly escalated.
By Colleen Kelly
By Kirsten Swann


It began as a routine ID check at an Anchorage nightclub and ended with two men in the hospital with gunshot wounds.

Early Sunday morning, Anchorage police responded to a shooting outside of Platinum Jaxx, a nightclub at the corner of Sixth Avenue and I Street in downtown Anchorage, at 3:19 a.m.

Witnesses said a man who was trying to get into the club got upset when security staff wouldn’t let him in without proper ID, resulting in a “verbal dispute,” according to police.

The man, later identified as Aaron Cook, returned with ID in hand a few minutes later.

Platinum Jaxx security said that his presence would be “disruptive” to the club given the argument that had occurred with staff just moments earlier. Cook was denied entrance.

He left the club, but returned with a pistol and shot a bouncer in the leg outside of the nightclub.

The bullet passed through the bouncer’s leg, striking an unidentified club patron in the hip. Both victims were taken to a hospital for treatment; neither injury is considered life threatening.

Cook, the suspect, then fled the scene in a Chevy Impala with three other people; police found the car unoccupied several hours later.

The 14-hour manhunt ended when Aaron Cook turned himself in to Anchorage police between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. later that day. Cook's friends encouraged him to give himself up to police after watching media reports that he was an active suspect in the shooting.

Two felony warrants were issued for Cook's arrest on two counts of first-degree assault, misconduct involving a weapon and reckless endangerment.

His bail has been set at $30,000 with a court-approved third-party custodian required for release.