Anchorage, Alaska

From the Anchorage Daily News of December 27, 2006

Hit-and-run driver shot after crash

BOTH ARMED: Pedestrian chases, fires at man who struck parked car.

A Christmas morning fender bender turned into a foot chase that left one man shot and injured on a Fairview street.

Police are still waiting for 22-year-old Josh Nida to recover from surgery after being shot in the chest to question him about the hit-and-run crash.

Nida drove a Subaru Impreza down 10th Avenue near LaTouche Street around 3 a.m. Monday, police say. He slammed into a parked car and kept driving on the snow-covered road.

Josh Cropper, a 25-year-old who works on the North Slope, said he was outside showing a friend where to park in front of his apartment complex. He saw the Impreza bang into the parked car on the south side of 10th Avenue and keep going. He decided to chase it. Cropper was armed with a 9mm Glock pistol at the time.

"I'm thinking he just hit a car and he's taking off. I need to get his license plate number or get him to stop," Cropper said.

Cropper pursued the car on foot down the road. About a block away, the car got stuck in a snowbank. Nida got out,
Cropper said. He was holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

"I'm thinking I'm about to be shot," Cropper said. "I shot him. He just ran down the road."

Police later said Nida had a warrant out for his arrest for failing to show up in court on a felony vehicle theft charge

A man riding in Nida's now snow-bound car as a passenger got out after the shot was fired and Nida ran off. He didn't seem concerned about Nida, Cropper said.

"He was like, 'I just want to grab my stuff,' " he said.

Cropper said he and his friend tried to hold the passenger at the scene, but the man eventually left. Cropper wouldn't say what he did next because "it's an ongoing investigation."

Police said Cropper fled the scene.

Another witness heard the shot and called 911. That witness tended to Nida until he was taken to the hospital where he had surgery.

Cropper, several hours later, went to the Anchorage Jail and told police what happened. He was then released.

The police have not yet interviewed Nida and no charges have yet been filed against anyone, said police spokeswoman Anita Shell.

Police are still looking for Nida's passenger and are asking him to come forward and tell them his version of events.

Police are considering Cropper's self-defense scenario, but want to hear from Nida and his passenger first, said Lt. Dave Koch.

"We only have one and a half sides to this story," Koch said. "We have (Cropper's) statement and the evidence found at the scene. But no statements from the passenger or Mr. Nida."

In an unrelated case, Nida is facing a vehicle theft charge. A $10,000 warrant for his arrest on that charge was issued Nov. 28. Police say the vehicle in the Christmas Day incident was not registered as stolen.

And, while Cropper holds a permit to carry a concealed weapon, it is not clear whether Nida was permitted to be carrying a weapon at all.

Cropper, who is a reservist for the U.S. Marines, wouldn't say whether it was the first time he'd shot someone. He didn't think much before pulling the trigger, he said.

"You're just reacting," he said.