Thomas Williams, 18, male, White/Caucasian, was shot to death on June 2, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska. As evening settled over the Chester Creek Trail area west of the Sullivan Arena and Mulcahy Ball Fields, dispatchers took reports of gunfire around 6:25 p.m. Officers searching the woods far off the trail found two youths with multiple gunshot wounds; Williams was mortally injured while a second juvenile was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Police quickly closed trail access points and called in homicide detectives and a crime-scene team to comb the thicketed area for evidence and witnesses.
Investigators learned the violence had begun as an altercation among a group of young people near the sports fields before spilling into the trees along the trail. Within two days, detectives announced they had located a person of interest for questioning and detained a 12-year-old boy believed to be the gunman; by June 5 the boy had been arrested, transported to McLaughlin Youth Center, and his case forwarded to the Division of Juvenile Justice. Police later publicly identified the deceased as Thomas Williams, noting he had only recently turned eighteen. The juvenile suspect's name was not released because of his age, and authorities did not announce adult charges.
News accounts and memorial listings echoed the department's timeline: Williams died of his wounds after the shooting in the woods off the trail, and the second victim survived in serious condition. Community remembrances marked his loss, while public records summarized the case as a juvenile-handled homicide without further publicly disclosed outcomes.
