Charges: Anchorage man shot his sister while her young son was in her lap

A 27-year-old Anchorage man has been charged with second-degree murder in the Thanksgiving Day shooting death of his sister.

Around 3:15 p.m. Thursday, Anchorage police received two 911 calls reporting that a woman had been shot in a residence on the 200 block of McCarrey Street in East Anchorage, charging documents state. The first caller identified himself as the uncle of the victim and the second identified herself as the grandmother of Moses Tony Crowe.

The victim’s uncle told a 911 dispatcher that “he heard a pop” while he was cooking at the home, that his niece had accidentally been shot and that she was “unconscious but breathing,” according to the charging documents. Crowe’s grandmother told police that her grandson had pulled a gun from his pocket and shot the victim, who was identified as Amanda Owen, Crowe’s 23-year-old sister, the documents state.

Police said that when they arrived at the scene, they found Owen, who had been shot in the head. She was taken to Providence Alaska Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.

The woman identified in the charging documents as Crowe and Owen’s grandmother told detectives that the family had met at the home for a Thanksgiving meal, and that Crowe had been up late drinking until early in the morning and had slept in past noon.

She told detectives that she was sitting on her bed that afternoon talking with Owen, who was in a chair with her 1-year-old son in her lap.

According to the charges, Crowe came into the bedroom and started talking with Owen, upset that she had unfriended or blocked him on Facebook.

The grandmother told detectives that Crowe pulled something out of his pocket that she wasn’t able to see clearly. At that point, he “manipulated” the object; when giving her account to detectives, the grandmother made “a motion consistent with racking the slide of a semiautomatic pistol,” according to the charges. Crowe then pointed a black pistol at Owen’s head and the gun went off, the grandmother told police.

“I’m gonna go to jail for life,” Crowe said, according to his grandmother’s account. Crowe also said he “didn’t mean it” and asked his grandmother not to call the police as he left the residence with the handgun, according to the charges.

A police K9 search of the area after the shooting was unsuccessful. Crowe was later found near the scene with a Glock pistol and taken into custody by SWAT officers, the charges state.

In an interview at police headquarters, Crowe told detectives that he accidentally shot Owen while “twirling the pistol around on his finger when it went off," according to the charges. He also told detectives that the Glock was used in the shooting.

Crowe repeatedly said that the shooting was accidental even though his grandmother told detectives a different version of events, the charges state.

At an arraignment attended by family in Anchorage Jail Court on Friday afternoon, District Court Judge Leslie Dickson set Crowe’s bail at $500,000 cash with third-party supervision and Pretrial Enforcement Division supervision with alcohol testing. Crowe is currently being held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.