Raynaldo Khotesouvan, a 15-year-old freshman at East Anchorage High School, was walking home from a gas station when he was shot and killed on a Mountain View sidewalk in July.

In August, Robert Steward, 33, got into a fight with his older brother about swearing in front of their mother. The brother produced a gun and shot him in the chest.

Erin Bailey, 24, was riding with his roommate on a Saturday afternoon in October when he fell or was pushed out of the car and run over, and left for dead in a busy East Anchorage intersection.

Khotesouvan, Steward and Bailey were three of the 28 people killed in Anchorage homicides in 2018, according to the Anchorage Police Department.

The 2018 toll represents a drop after two grim, record-setting years of Anchorage violence: 37 homicides in 2017; 34 in 2016.

It’s still high compared to historic homicide data. In 2015, the APD tallied 26 homicides. The year before that, there were just 13 slayings in the city of roughly 300,000 people.

One other person, 20-year-old Zander Clark, was killed by Anchorage police officers after brandishing a knife during a police encounter in the Penland Park mobile home park in in March.

The Anchorage Police Department does not include what it terms “officer involved shootings” in its yearly homicide tally.

A fourth of the homicide cases are considered open.

The Anchorage Police Department would not make any detective or officer available Monday to answer questions about 2018’s homicides, citing holiday schedules.

In the past, detectives have stressed that victims were rarely targeted randomly and almost always knew their killer. Police detectives have also pointed out that involvement with illegal drugs or heavy drinking is a common theme throughout many cases.

The circumstances of the 2018 homicides were as varied as the victims.

More than a few began as fights, according to the accounts of police and prosecutors: A fight over a bicycle at a Midtown park left Ian Ellison, 48, dead. A fight over vehicle parts at a warehouse erupted in gunfire that killed 25-year-old Dylan Gregg. Sosaia Finau Jr., 21, stepped in to break up an argument between his girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend over a set of apartment keys and was shot at least 20 times by two men.

In the year’s only double homicide, two teenagers killed each other over the sale of a gun, according to police. Daniel Bender Jr. and Davon Dodge met up on a residential street in West Anchorage for a gun sale. The two argued and shot each other. Both were 19.

Few of the cases where someone has been arrested and charged involve a victim who was randomly targeted. An exception was Michael Greco. Greco, 45, worked as a gardener at the zoo and was attacked while filling in for an overnight security shift. Police say they don’t know why Clayton Charlie, the severely schizophrenic man charged in his death, showed up at the zoo after dark but have no reason to believe the men knew each other.

The homicides happened in all parts of the city, from Baxter Road in East Anchorage to O’Malley Road down south. They happened in parking lots and motels and mobile homes and houses.

Almost 90 percent of the homicide victims of 2018 were men, a shift from previous years where women have made up a third or more of the victims. Three women — Cheri Ingram, 42, Brittney Sparks, 31, and Jenna DelKittie, 23 — were killed in 2018.

The oldest victim was 61-year-old Dwayne English, found stabbed to death outside a mental health nonprofit in Fairview in December.

Seven of the cases are considered unsolved.

They include the death of 1-year-old Hezekiah Schwichtenberg, the youngest victim, who was brought to an Anchorage hospital in August with injuries police eventually determined were caused by trauma. The APD has said it is investigating the boy’s death as a homicide, but has not released any information about suspects or arrests.

Timothy Smith, 39, was found shot to death at Fourth Avenue and D Street on New Year’s Day of 2018.

Kevin Napier, a 37-year-old carpenter with three young children, was found shot to death in an apartment near Dimond High School.

David Rodriguez, 29, and his neighbor got into a fight outside their East Anchorage homes. Rodriguez was shot dead and police released the shooter after questioning him, police said at the time.

James Page Jr., 59, was found dead inside a room at the Black Angus Inn, of what police called “an assault" in November.

Tupou Satini Jr., 40, was in a fight that started in an East Anchorage apartment and spilled outside. He was found in the street and died at a hospital.

And there was Jenna Delkittie, a 23-year-old woman killed in a spray of bullets as she came home from a night out with friends.

Her friend DaJonee Hale said she flew from Germany, where she’s a professional basketball player, back to Alaska to say goodbye to DelKittie.

She and Delkittie had been friends since high school. DelKittie was bubbly, fun-loving and loyal, Hale said. She’d graduated and was holding down a job at an Anchorage barbecue restaurant while looking forward to traveling and becoming a mother someday, Hale said.

On Oct. 28, the night she was shot, Delkittie had been out at a club with friends, Hale said. They’d returned to a Mountain View apartment complex and were huddled around the entrance, entering the code to get in, when a car pulled up and sprayed them with bullets, she said.

“She had nothing to do with whatever drama was going on,” Hale said. “She was just out being a 23-year-old.”

Five days later, Delkittie died.