Crime & Courts

Woman wanted in 2017 Anchorage killing arrested after traffic stop

Anchorage police on Saturday arrested a 32-year-old woman wanted in the fatal 2017 shooting of a man outside a McDonald's restaurant on Spenard Road.

Officers pulled over a vehicle near Minnesota Drive and Raspberry Road at 11:51 a.m. Saturday, the Anchorage Police Department said Monday.

Nicole Diaz was one of the people inside, police said.

Police arrested Diaz on a warrant for first- and second-degree murder and robbery related to the killing of Craig Berumen.

On June 6, police announced that Diaz and Chaz Shanigan, 22, and Devontay Gordon, 25, had been indicted by an Anchorage grand jury in the killing.

By then, Shanigan and Gordon were already incarcerated on other felony charges.

Diaz's whereabouts were unknown until her arrest Saturday.

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Berumen was found wounded in the parking lot of the McDonald's, hanging half out of the window of a vehicle, on March 8, 2017.

Police said he was shot at the nearby Executive Suites hotel in what was described as a "targeted, drug-related shooting."

Before he was killed, Berumen wrote on his Facebook page that drugs had caused him trouble.

"I haven't been able to stay out of prison because I make my own rules and DRUGS. So… No more drugs."

Michelle Theriault Boots

Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. She focuses on in-depth stories about the intersection of public policy and Alaskans' lives. Before joining the ADN in 2012, she worked at daily newspapers up and down the West Coast and earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon.

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