Anchorage Daily News

Anchorage police said a would-be rapist who grabbed a random jogger near Westchester Lagoon on Thursday evening ceased his attack after the victim fought him off and chased him into nearby woods.

Police said late Thursday that they were questioning Michael Nyako, 23, who was taken into custody 10 minutes after police got the call about 5:20 p.m. He ran up a wooded hill overlooking the lagoon in front of West High School and came face to face with responding officers, Sgt. Lee Rohwer said.

The woman, whom police wouldn't name, was taken to a hospital to be treated for injuries that appeared to include broken bones, Rohwer said. It was an unusually brazen attack, he said.

"The rarest kind of sexual assault that we see is the innocent victim that is minding their own business and the stranger comes up and grabs them," Rohwer said.

The attack came as the woman was jogging a trail on the south side of the lagoon and saw a suspicious man on a bike, he said. The assailant came up from behind, grabbed her and threw her into thigh-high grass next to the trail. But she fought back, screaming, Rohwer said.

"He wrestled with her pretty roughly, and at that point, he jumped off and runs off," Rohwer said. "She actually ran after him."

Witnesses in the area joined the pursuit and began calling police, he said. None caught the attacker, and police began setting up a perimeter around the lagoon. But before a dog team arrived on scene, Nyako literally ran into the cops on the overlook, Rohwer said.

According to court records, Nyako has an extensive criminal history, including charges of assault, resisting arrest, burglary and driving under the influence.

At the time of his arrest, he was wanted on a felony assault warrant and had been flagged as a repeat violent offender in a police database, Rohwer said.

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