A 37-year-old woman of Alaskan Native descent, Jaclyn Colleen Welcome, was fatally shot early in the morning on June 19, 2021 in Anchorage, Alaska. She died following a shooting behind a Tesoro gas station, near 4th Avenue and Gambell Street, where she was one of five people struck. Four others survived with injuries.
The shooting occurred at about 2:43 AM, when police responded to gunfire involving two vehicles and a group of people congregating behind the gas station.
Witnesses said that earlier the day before the shooting, the man who later became the suspect had gotten into a verbal dispute with homeless individuals in the area.
The suspect, Anthony Lee Herring, then 21 years old, worked at the gas station. After the verbal altercation the previous day, he returned that night in his truck with his girlfriend. Investigators say a male in the group behind the gas station fired a handgun; several seconds later Herring fired about 16 shots from an AR-15 rifle from across the street toward the group. Jaclyn Welcome was struck and died of her injuries; four others were wounded. Herring later claimed he had acted in self-defense.
Herring was arrested soon after the incident, indicted by a grand jury in July 2021 on multiple charges including first-degree and second-degree murder, attempted murder, weapons misconduct, assault, and evidence tampering. Over time, as part of a plea agreement, he pled guilty in May 2024 to one count of second-degree murder and a consolidated count of first-degree assault. Other charges were dropped as part of that agreement.
On January 2, 2025, Anthony Lee Herring, then 25 years old, was sentenced by Anchorage Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby to a composite sentence of 35 years and one day in prison, with 10 years suspended. The family of Jaclyn Welcome expressed that the sentence was too lenient.
