Additional information received from Anchorage police states that the victim of last night’s homicide has been identified as 31-year-old Aylett Hanson of Anchorage. His next of kin have been notified and police continue to investigate his death.
Last night Anchorage police and medics checked on a reportedly unresponsive male inside a vehicle in a parking lot near Spenard where they declared the man dead and ruled it the first homicide of 2014.
We spoke with Anchorage Police Department’s Public Information Officer Jennifer Castro about developments.
Castro: “The autopsy was being conducted today and police are in the process of making a positive identification of the male victim. Once that identification process has been completed then we will notify the next of kin and let them know of the death and then from that point we will be able to release the identity out to the public.”
This year’s first homicide comes nearly two weeks after last year’s which was on January 13, 2013, and 2013 homicides were even to 2012.
Castro: “So in 2012 and 2013, not counting officer involved shootings we had a total of 16 homicides each year.”
According to the Alaska Violent Death Reporting System, homicide rates dropped 11 percent across Alaska from 2007-2011.