The vehicle, a blue and white 1989 Chevy Suburban with Alaska plate CDE869, was stopped late Thursday at Tudor Road and Boniface Parkway, though the "person of interest" in the slaying, Terence C. Gray, 28, wasn't in it, according to police.
Investigators on Friday were combing the vehicle for evidence in the death of 29-year-old Edwing Valentine Matos, who was shot several times near a barber shop on the west end of the Dimond Center the evening of Feb. 27.
Police say the killer pulled a gun after he and Matos got into an argument. The lone gunman, wearing an oversized white sweatshirt, an Afro wig and a fake mustache, fled the mall and escaped.
"This is the vehicle that was seen leaving the scene of the homicide," police spokeswoman Anita Shell said Friday. "Witnesses say that this was the vehicle that the person got into that had the wig on."
Shell said Gray was seen driving the vehicle from the scene of the shooting. Neither he nor the man found driving the Suburban on Thursday has been charged in connection with Matos' death.
Police stopped the vehicle about 11:30 p.m. near Tudor and Boniface, closing the road for about 10 minutes as they extracted its two occupants. The driver on Thursday, Dexter Topps, 42, was arrested on a charge of driving with a revoked license. He was booked in jail on $250 bail.
A woman in the vehicle was released, Shell said.
The vehicle had recently been sold and it wasn't immediately clear who owned it, Shell said. The relationship between Topps and Gray, if any, was also not clear.
Gray remains at large, though police say they think he's still in the Anchorage area. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call police at 786-8900 or Crime Stoppers at 561-STOP.
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
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