The Anchorage Police Department has arrested a 15-year-old male suspected of hitting an Anchorage cyclist in the face with a tree branch Monday.
The teen accused of assaulting 43-year-old Tim Kirk was taken to McLaughlin Youth Center on Tuesday, according to APD spokesperson Anita Shell.
"Following interviews with the suspects, and based on video evidence, police learned that a 15-year-old and his 16-year-old brother had skipped school with a friend yesterday," Shell wrote. The teenagers had then gone walking along the Lanie Fleischer Chester Creek Trail.
The alleged assault occurred as Kirk was commuting to work along the trail Monday morning. He was roughly 80 yards west of the Goose Lake overpass and heading eastbound when he came across three teenagers, one of whom was using a branch as a walking stick.
The teenagers stepped aside, but as Kirk passed, the suspect hit him in the face with a branch about 5 feet long and 2 inches in diameter, Kirk's girlfriend Julie Saddoris said Monday. Kirk continued to ride along and eventually lost control, went into a ditch and called 911.
Kirk suffered skull fractures, a broken nose and dozens of stitches to his face in the attack, Saddoris said. The 43-year-old was slated to stay in the hospital overnight and has surgery scheduled for next week, Saddoris said.
"It's a rare incident," Shell said of the assault on the popular Anchorage bike trail.
Kirk described the suspects to police, and they were in search of the three teenage males on Monday afternoon, who were seen walking in the direction of East High School after the attack.
East High School resource officers worked with the Anchorage School District and identified the three teens present at the time of the assault based on the description provided by Kirk, Shell wrote.
While being interviewed, the suspects' stories were inconsistent with East High School video footage showing the teens skipping school. "We were able to call them out on that, basically," Shell said.
In the release, police also said that the teens described what they were wearing on the day of the assault, which matched the reports provided by Kirk and other witnesses.
Anchorage School District Superintendent Ed Graff said that he was "appalled by the actions of the teenagers."
"That's not what we teach our students. It's extremely disheartening," he said, and added that he hopes Kirk has a speedy recovery.
The 15-year-old was admitted to McLaughlin and has been "referred for assault charges," Shell said. No other charges had been filed against the other two teenagers.