APD Arrests Two in Connection with December 30th Oklahoma Street Homicide Investigation

The Anchorage Police Department reported on Sunday that they have made arrests in the December 30th shooting case that eventually turned into a  homicide case approximately two weeks later.

It was at 2:59 am on December 30th that APD responded to a shots-fired incident on the 100-block of Oklahoma Street and opened an investigation. Officers collected multiple shell casings from that location.

15 minutes later, a female, later identified as Juanita Lolesio, arrived at a local hospital, she was accompanied by multiple people that had been at the scene. She had suffered life-threatening gunshot wounds to her upper body. The people with her were interviewed by investigators.

It was found through the interviews, that as a party bus with several people aboard was dropping people off at the apartment complex on Oklahoma Street, shots rang out as the suspects opened fire on the vehicle.

On January 15th, the shooting victim, Lolesio died from her injuries and the investigation was upgraded to a homicide investigation.[xyz-ihs snippet=”adsense-body-ad”]Homicide detectives continued their investigation and on Saturday, along with the Investigative Unit served a search warrant on a residence on the 900-block of East 20th Avenue. Two persons, a 19-year-old and a juvenile were taken to APD for questioning. It was revealed that 19-year-old Christopher Espiritu-Simpson and the juvenile male were responsible for two separate incidents in the month of December.

The first incident was a shots-fired outside a residence on the 6700-block off Stella Place during the early morning hours of December 27th, and the second was the December 30th incident on Oklahoma Street where Lolesio was shot.

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Following the interviews, both were taken to the Anchorage Jail. Simpson was charged with Murder II and multiple counts of Misconduct Involving a Weapon. Charges are pending for the juvenile male.

If you have information to help solve this or any crime and are afraid to give your name, call Crime Stoppers at 561-STOP or go online at www.anchoragecrimestoppers.com. You can remain anonymous and still help law enforcement catch the criminals.