Note: This story has been updated to include the identification of the taxicab driver and his passenger, who were killed in a Midtown collision involving a patrol car. This update also includes additional information about the officer.
Anchorage police say gunfire and a call for help early Saturday morning led to a deadly crash between a police patrol car and a taxicab.
At a news conference on Saturday, Police Chief Sean Case said two people were pronounced dead at the scene. The cab driver has since been identified as 68-year-old Cemal Sadiku of Anchorage. His front-seat passenger was 45-year-old William Phillips. APD did not provide an address for Phillips.
Case said three other riders, along with the officer, were taken to the hospital. Their injuries were not life threatening.
The officer has been identified as Kaden Pohl, who has been with the Anchorage Police Department since December 2020.
Case says Pohl was headed west on 36th Avenue in response to a call near 36th and Arctic Boulevard. He says the collision occurred when the patrol car and the cab entered the intersection of 36th and A Street at the same time.
“The officer that was involved had his emergency lights activated,” Case said. “I don’t have information on whether the siren was activated at that time. That’s going to take a little bit more investigation to determine whether that siren was activated.”
Case says traffic fatality investigations are complex, and a police officer’s involvement in the collision adds another layer to the case.
Another challenge for Pohl may be his involvement in a police shooting in June. As officers attempted to arrest the suspect in a theft at a South Anchorage Walmart, police said the suspect shot and wounded another officer. Pohl was also shot and returned fire, but his body armor stopped the bullet.
The Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions is currently reviewing the officer-involved shooting. There will also be an internal investigation into Pohl’s role in Saturday’s fatal collision. The police chief says that could take time to complete.
“So, if you're familiar with some of the fatal collisions that we've had in the past, these investigations go on for several, several months,” the police chief said. “So, I just want to make sure that the expectation is that we're going to provide as much information as we can when we get it, but we're just in the very, very early stages of this investigation.”
Police say other officers responding to the initial report of gunfire near Arctic Boulevard and West 36th Avenue were diverted to the crash scene. No arrests were made, and no injuries reported in the shots-fired call.
On Saturday, the police chief noted that fatal traffic collisions involving on-duty officers are rare in Anchorage. Case says the most recent case he recalls was in 2001, when Officer Justin Wollam was killed after a drunk driver struck his patrol car, head-on, during a police chase. Case says the suspect was driving the wrong way on the Glenn Highway, when the collision occurred.
