A group of bandits prowling the Chester Creek trail Friday afternoon, most of them riding bicycles, attacked and robbed random trail users in a short-lived series of assaults, according to Anchorage police.

Bike-mounted police caught up with and detained four "persons of interest," all young men, on the trail behind Worthington Ford about a half hour after the first robbery was reported. All were taken to police headquarters for questioning Friday evening, police said.

No charges had yet been filed Friday night.

"We've received several callers reporting having been basically jumped and having their belongings taken from them," Sgt. Gerard Asselin said at the scene. "In order for the events to occur that quickly it seems like they're just taking on whoever they come across."

Four men, ranging in age from their 20s to 60s, were individually attacked as the group of bandits apparently made its way from the Valley of the Moon Park area to near Sullivan Arena, Asselin said. One victim reported a wallet stolen in the attack and another a snatched iPod.

One victim, who identified himself as David Smith, 62, said he was on his afternoon walk along the trail when he came across the youths. They seemed to be minding their own business as he passed them. Then one struck him from behind, he said.

"Nothing. Not a word at all," Smith said. "I got sucker-punched, and I was in a daze. You know, I was trying to fight back and I was on the ground. He hit me several times."

Then, just as suddenly, his assailant broke off the attack and the group moved down the trail without taking anything, he said. Someone on a bike came by and lent Smith a cell phone to call police, he said.

Smith, whose clothing was spattered with blood, had a cut under his eye and had a sore side from where his assailant kicked him while he was down, he said. Fire department medics told him he should get checked out at a hospital and that he would probably have a black eye or two, he said.

Another victim had a knot above his left eye and a cut on his hand, but Smith was probably the worst injured in the assaults, police said.

"The first victim had the least amount of injury because he said one punch, he went down and just covered up and they quit beating on him," Asselin said. "A couple of these guys tried to fight back, defend themselves, and so they got a little bit more, it sounds like."

One victim said he heard the robbers mention a gun but didn't see one, Asselin said. Police did not recover any weapons.

Police got the first report at 3:54 p.m. Bike patrol officers Chris Ritala and Mike Brock, who were downtown, headed to the area and put in on the trail near A Street, Ritala said. They rode up on a victim other than the one who called near 16th Avenue and Cordova Street at 4:09.

"Actually it looked like he was intoxicated," Ritala said. "But as we approached him, he's actually picking himself off the ground and is dazed and says, 'Hey I just got jumped. There was three guys on bikes, they beat me up, I fought them off and they took off.' "

Another victim, who apparently left the area, called in from Sears Mall at 4:13 p.m. The last called from behind Mulcahy Stadium at 4:23.

The bike officers swept the trail to 20th Avenue and Ingra Street without success and circled back. As they rounded a curve in the trail behind the Ford dealership, they saw four men matching the victims' descriptions of the suspects, Ritala said. Three of them were on mountain bikes and one on foot.

"We confronted them on the trail at gunpoint, laid them all out and detained them," Ritala said. "And that's when the rest of the cavalry showed up."

Patrol cars with flashing lights lined the trail and clustered in a corner of the nearby arena parking lot as police interviewed the victims. Smith and another man held ice-packs to their heads as police brought forward a series of handcuffed men in baggy clothes for identification.

"It might make me want to carry something like mace or something like that," Smith said as police prepared to load the suspects into squad cars. "But as soon as I'm able to walk again, I'll walk around."

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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