4 arrested, 2 at large in spring crime wave that included shots fired at police

Six people have been charged with dozens of crimes, including multiple counts of assault, burglary and theft, for their alleged roles earlier this year in an Anchorage vehicle- and property-theft ring and a March incident that saw police officers fired upon in Midtown.

Court records show four defendants — David Fatialofa, 25; Fale Moevao, 30; Usugafono Palauni, 23; and Faamolemole Uiese, 26 — in custody and each charged with multiple felonies. All four are charged with one count of first-degree attempted assault and four counts of third-degree assault, as well as varying counts of second-degree burglary, first-degree vehicle theft and failing to stop at the direction of a peace officer.

Two more defendants, Desiree Osburn and Joslyn Pagaduan, both 32, are at large and sought on one felony count each of hindering prosecution.

During a press conference at APD headquarters Monday morning, Police Chief Chris Tolley said the suspects were initially charged on a 30-count indictment handed down by a grand jury Thursday. The four men were already in custody since their arrests in other cases spanning from March to early May.

"We know these suspects were using stolen vehicles to drive to and vandalize a dozen Anchorage businesses, and causing thousands of dollars in losses and damage," Tolley said.

Anchorage District Attorney Clint Campion thanked small businesses victimized in the case, which he said "provided us critical video which allowed us to indict these defendants." He also thanked the state Crime Lab in Anchorage, which rapidly processed DNA evidence from the stolen vehicles that also helped investigators to connect the various cases.

According to a bail memorandum summarizing some cases from the indictment, nearly a dozen Anchorage businesses were burglarized between March 17 and March 28 by suspects driving various stolen vehicles; Palauni and Fatialofa were seen on surveillance video at some of the burglary sites. At least four of the stolen vehicles containing DNA evidence and fingerprints were recovered by police.

Inspire Physical Therapy in South Anchorage was one of the first businesses targeted. Owner Tiffany Zollinger said she was first to arrive the morning after the break-in. She went to work early to exercise, and she noticed the office looked disheveled. Zollinger didn't think much of it — until she spotted the door to a workspace left open. The door is locked every night, she said.

The room housed a number of desks with employee computers. The computers were missing. So was the front desk computer. Zollinger then found the back door broken into.

She estimates about $5,000 in property was stolen.

Since the break-in, Zollander has installed a security system and cameras at the front and back of her business. She said she was surprised thieves targeted a physical therapy office but is optimistic something similar won't happen again soon.

"I think with our new security system and the overall awareness at the strip mall of the break-ins and others watching out for each other, I feel confident it won't happen again," she said. "I just have to have faith that the folks who are responsible will serve an appropriate punishment for what they did."

When police responded to a report of a break-in at Kriner's Diner on C Street at about 12:30 a.m. on March 28, they found a stolen GMC Yukon behind the building. Officers tried to block the Yukon in but it rammed its way past a police vehicle, with an initial pursuit abandoned when the SUV traveled the wrong way down one-way streets.

"Officers were able to see the Yukon drive off the road near Fireweed Avenue," prosecutors wrote. "When officers reached the vehicle, the only occupants were Desiree Osburn and Joslyn Pagaduan. Officers attempted a canvas of the area. As one group of four officers began climbing an embankment near C Street and 19th Avenue, multiple gunshots were fired at them."

No other suspects were found in the case that day. When officers questioned Osburn and Pagaduan, they said Moevao and Palauni had been inside the Yukon, but didn't say anybody else had been in the vehicle.

Assistant District Attorney James Klugman, who is prosecuting the case, said Monday afternoon that the assault charges against the men in the case stem from the gunfire near Kriner's. He declined to say who prosecutors believe to have shot at the officers, but indicated that state statute allows for all of them to be charged in connection with it.

"Alaska law has some provisions that when people make a plan and act in concert with others, they can be held liable even for actions that they didn't personally undertake," Klugman said.

Klugman said that investigators still don't have a total estimate for the losses and destruction caused in the vehicle thefts and burglaries.

"Conservatively, between property that was taken and damage that was done, we're talking about tens of thousands of dollars if not hundreds of thousands of dollars," Klugman said. "The vehicles were quite badly damaged by the time police recovered them, to the extent that some of them were undriveable."

Campion said prosecutors shifted their tactics in February to fight a sharp rise in Anchorage car thefts, when they saw local vehicle thefts and burglaries being charged and processed at rates roughly double those in 2015.

"We realized at that point we needed to take a different course in regard to vehicle thefts," Campion said.

Tolley said Monday that police had seen "an initial decline" in the rate of vehicle thefts following the arrest of the men in the spring cases. Although they remain higher than last year, police spokeswoman Anita Shell said the extent of the increased thefts has fallen in recent months.

"They've tapered off as far as the spikes go, because if you look at January it was just triple," Shell said. "We're seeing elevated vehicle thefts, but it's nothing like it was in winter and early spring."

Fatiolofa was arrested on Police Memorial Day in May, after he allegedly fired at an Alaska State Troopers vehicle during an Anchorage car chase. More than 60 officers responded to that call, and Fatialofa was found and taken into custody near the Costco store on DeBarr Road.

Soon after Fatiolofa's arrest, police said another man with links to the ring, 42-year-old Tagaloa Tanuvasa, walked away from the Cordova Center halfway house in downtown Anchorage. Tanuvasa turned himself in days later.

[Anchorage police get more towing funds because of jump in car thefts ]

A statewide inmate database listed all four men from the March charges in custody at Anchorage correctional facilities Monday morning.

Anyone with information on Osburn or Pagaduan is asked to contact either APD at 907-786-8900 or Crime Stoppers at 907-561-STOP or its website.

Alaska Dispatch News reporter Jerzy Shedlock contributed to this report.