The sound of a crash woke guests at the Ingra House Hotel in the Fairview neighborhood around 5 a.m. Wednesday.
John Nielsen, back in Alaska for his summer job as a tour company director, peered out his second-floor window. He said a driver on Seventh Avenue broadsided a car on Ingra Street, pushing it about 30 yards.
Then, Nielsen said, it smashed into his brand-new rental car parked below, along with a pickup next to it.
Hotel manager Edward Sweet said he saw the driver limp away from the scene, leaving a woman behind in the car.
Anchorage police said the driver, 38-year-old Kenneth Haase, originally was pulled over at Seventh Avenue and Gambell Street for driving the wrong way on a one-way street just before 5 a.m.
But as the officer was talking to Haase, he put his silver Dodge into reverse and turned east on Seventh Avenue toward Ingra, police spokeswoman Renee Oistad said in an email. The Dodge first collided with a silver Volkswagen in the intersection, then hit the parked car and truck in the hotel parking lot before it hit the building.
The Volkswagen driver suffered minor injuries, Oistad said. It's not clear how long the Dodge was driven in reverse, she said.
Haase fled on foot and was tracked by a police dog to a hiding place under an RV parked less than 100 feet away, she said. He was arrested and taken to the Anchorage jail on an existing felony warrant for a parole violation as well as new charges of third-degree assault, failure to stop at the direction of a police officer, reckless driving and driving on a revoked license.
Haase also complained of pain as a result of the crash, police say. He was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Sweet said a few guests "dodged a bullet" because Haase hit vehicles first instead of crashing straight into the hotel on Ingra between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
"Thank God no guests were injured," he said. "If it weren't for the two cars that were parked out front … (the car) probably would have driven into one of my rooms and killed the two guests that were in bed, a gentleman and his son."
The hotel will need to replace two windows.