An Anchorage man will likely spend the rest of his life in prison for attempting to murder six police officers in 2022.
On Jan. 22, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson sentenced 32-year-old Dillon Nicholas Spring to serve 75 years on six counts of attempted first-degree murder.
According to the Alaska Dept. of Law, trial evidence showed that on March 18, 2022, the Anchorage Police Department responded to a report of an assault at 819 E. 10th Avenue, where Spring was alleged to have injured someone with a hammer.
“Spring encountered police in the stairwell of the building and went back into his apartment,” the Dept. of Law noted. “While in the apartment, Spring barricaded the doorway and armed himself with an AK-47 and handguns. Police knocked and announced for more than an hour, eventually obtaining a search warrant to enter Spring’s apartment and then breaching the door. While entering the doorway, Spring began firing with the AK-47 at the police, then moved into a closet and fired more shots into the stairwell where police had been standing.”
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One of the officers was seriously injured after being shot in the left leg, right foot, and a graze wound to the right leg. That officer recently returned to duty after several years of painful surgeries and rehabilitation. The other five officers were physically uninjured in the incident.
Judge Peterson noted “that this is the most serious offense this court has ever seen.” He found that the defendant could see and hear officers outside his door and laid in wait for them to enter. Judge Peterson also remarked that there was “no doubt in the court’s mind that [Spring] did everything he could to kill all six officers.”
Echoing comments from the victims that spoke, the court noted that the defendant either lacked remorse or does not fully appreciate the serious nature of his conduct.
Peterson found that Spring was a “worst offender” and hoped the sentence would deter others from going down the same path.
