Police body cam video released of fatal Christmas Day shooting involving woman with hatchet

Finding videos takes time and effort, keep me motivated by donating to https://paypal.me/thisisbutter
-----
Juneau, AK - Officer body camera video depicting the final moments of a Christmas Day police shooting that left a 30-year-old woman dead in Juneau was released Thursday.

The investigation by the Alaska Department of Law - Office of Special Prosecutions - determined that Officer Jonah Hennings-Booth was legally justified in using lethal force.

The shooting occurred in the early morning hours of Dec. 25, 2024, in the parking lot of the Valley Breeze-In convenience store.

Police say Hennings-Booth shot Ashley Rae Johnston after she did not heed commands for her to drop a hatchet she was holding. Johnston was reported by a caller shortly before 5:30 a.m. who said she was screaming at people and had threatened the caller - a private security guard - with a hammer.

Once officers arrived on scene, the video shows that approximately 48 seconds elapsed from when Hennings-Booth emerged from his patrol car and commanded Johnston to “drop the hatchet” or stop, a warning he repeats at least 17 times.

In the same amount of time, Johnston replied “shoot” at least six times.

One of the officers deployed a taser that struck Johnston, but didn’t work as intended. According to Krag Campbell, Deputy Chief of Police in Juneau, one of the taser’s barbs didn’t make contact with Johnston’s body and instead struck a lighter she was wearing on a necklace, causing the fire seen on her chest in the footage.

Campbell said Hennings-Booth has been with the department for almost six years. After an investigation, the Office of Special Prosecutions declared Hennings-Booth’s use of force was justified.

It was the second deadly police shooting in Alaska’s capital city in 2024; Last summer, the state cleared a JPD officer and Alaska Wildlife Trooper in the fatal July shooting of 35-year-old Steven Kissack, a homeless man who was well-known to Juneau residents, when state prosecutors found Kissack refused to drop a knife as he ran toward officers.