INFORMATION RELEASE

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JPD appreciates the public?s assistance in investigating the racial incident of Saturday 6-14-14. However, a man photographed at Celebration the day prior to the incident and whose picture has been widely circulated on Facebook and through smartphones has been found to have been at work at the time of the incident. JPD has developed a person of interest who is not the man in the circulated photograph. The person of interest is an apparently homeless person who came to the attention of JPD officers this summer due to his aggressive and random behavior. It is believed that man kicked over traffic barricades on Main Street just prior to the racial incident.

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On June 14, 2014, at about 9:30 a.m., a racial incident marred the close of Celebration 2014. The incident happened at the end of Saturday?s parade. Native veterans acted as flag bearers and led the parade through downtown Juneau. Then the veterans formed a corridor on Willoughby Avenue next to Centennial Hall for the dancers to pass through as they finished the parade.

A white male grabbed the American flag out of the hands of a 67 year old native man. The white male yelled racial slurs at the native man and the crowd and attempted to spit on the flag. He then tried to run off with the flag. People in the area wrestled the flag away from the suspect who then ran away toward Whittier Street. The suspect also shoved people as he ran away, including a 53 year old native woman. Two Juneau Police Department officers on bikes and one in a patrol car searched the area but could not find the suspect. Now JPD needs the public?s assistance in identifying the man responsible for the incident.

The suspect is described as between 30 and 50 years old. He was wearing a lighter toned multi-colored knit hat under the hood of a dark, possibly blue, jacket.

Many people were taking pictures and video of the dancers going through the flag corridor. Crime Line is offering a reward for a picture, video, or other information that leads to the identification of the suspect. Even if there is no video of the incident itself it is possible that someone documented the presence of the man in the crowd prior to the incident.

Anyone with information is encouraged to log on to the Juneau Crime Line Web site and report their tip. You may also call JPD at 586-0600.