An Army lieutenant has been charged with breaking through the window of a Girdwood cabin and fighting with a man inside while drunk, according to Alaska State Troopers. The homeowner, an Anchorage doctor, says he protected four children inside the cabin with his fists and an antique ice ax.
Noah Laufer, 46, was asleep when his two young children and their two friends started screaming early Saturday, he said. A stranger -- later identified as 1st Lt. Daniel J. Curtin, 25, of Eagle River -- shattered a window and forced his way into the dwelling, according to a charging document.
"It was the parental nightmare," recalled Laufer, the lone adult at the time in the Arlberg Avenue cabin.
What followed was a bloody scuffle with the larger, younger man, Laufer said. It would be about 15 minutes before neighbors arrived to help Laufer restrain Curtin and about 45 minutes until a trooper arrived to arrest the lieutenant, Laufer said.
Curtin was set to deploy to Afghanistan soon with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, but he will now be staying behind due to the arrest, according to the Army. Curtin is charged with felony burglary and criminal mischief and misdemeanor assault.
The kids' screaming jolted Laufer awake a little after midnight Friday, Laufer said. They told him someone or something was trying to get into the cabin; then Laufer heard the window breaking. He grabbed his father's old, wood-handled ice ax and went to the unoccupied room, now with shards of glass all over the floor, Laufer said. Laufer cut his feet and said he yelled at Curtin to stay outside.
"He said we had to leave, that he was clearing the house, and that this wasn't our house, it was the Muppets' house," Laufer said.
Curtin climbed in, and Laufer pulled shut a door to the room, in an attempt to keep Curtin from getting into the rest of the cabin, Laufer said. But Curtin kicked down the door, backwards, through its frame, Laufer said. At some point during the struggle, Laufer lost his phone. Laufer's 10-year-old daughter Ellie -- "the real hero," he said -- ran to get help. The other kids -- ages 5, 6 and 9 -- hid upstairs.
Laufer thinks he hit Curtin once with the ice ax. He broke his hand punching the Army officer and somehow got him down on the floor. Laufer held the ax handle over Curtin's neck to keep him subdued while Curtin continued to fight, Laufer said.
Laufer, a family doctor, said he's used to soothing patients, so he tried to calm Curtin while holding him down.
"I said, 'You're going to be OK, just relax. But there's no way I'm letting you go,' " Laufer said.
Girdwood Fire Chief William Chadwick, Laufer's next-door neighbor, said he was up waiting for his son to get home from work. A little girl came running into his driveway, crying and told Chadwick and another neighbor that a "bloody guy" had broken in and was wrestling with her dad, Chadwick said.
Chadwick radioed 911 dispatchers and his fellow firefighters, and ran to Laufer's cabin with the other neighbor, Ryan Andersen.
"We basically got the guy pinned to the floor," Chadwick said.
Girdwood medics treated injuries to both Curtin and Laufer, the fire chief said. Chadwick would not comment on Curtin's demeanor or condition, citing medical privacy laws, but he said the responders took precautions to make sure he didn't hurt them or himself.
"It was kind of stressful for all the neighbors here, and everyone involved," Chadwick said.
Laufer said it was at least another half-hour before a trooper arrived and arrested Curtin. "The scene was all pretty calm and quiet by the time the trooper got there," he said.
Trooper Sgt. Michael Zweifel, who heads the Girdwood trooper post, said the responding trooper was on call and received the request for help while at his home in Anchorage. With only four troopers assigned to the Girdwood post, there isn't always around-the-clock coverage, Zweifel said.
"Unfortunately, this particular incident happened when we didn't have anybody on duty," Zweifel said. "There are times that we are going to have the delayed response time, because, unfortunately, we don't have 24-hour coverage."
The number of troopers available for duty is ultimately determined by the state's budget, Zwiefel said.
Laufer said he could understand why it might have taken awhile for the trooper to respond, but his wife, Michelle, was not happy with the delay. Noah Laufer said she arrived from Anchorage within a few minutes of the trooper.
"My primary concern ... is the response time," Michelle Laufer, a pediatrician, wrote in an email. "Is this what is to be expected?"
Curtin appeared "extremely impaired by alcohol" when the trooper arrived, Zweifel said. The neighbors were still holding him, and the trooper arrested Curtin without any further struggle, Zweifel said.
The lieutenant was taken to jail in Anchorage and held on $15,000 bail, which he paid through a bail bondsman, according to court records. Following the arrest, Curtin was reassigned to a rear detachment that will stay at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson instead of heading to Afghanistan, according to Lt. Col. William Coppernoll.
It would have been Curtin's first deployment, Coppernoll said. Coppernoll said he was not aware of any plans by the Army to discipline Curtin.
"As far as I understand, this is under civilian investigation, and this took place off the installation, so we'll let the local authorities conduct their investigation, and he'll go through the same process anybody else would that's been arrested in the local community," Coppernoll said.
Laufer said he was glad neither he nor Curtin was hurt worse.
"Had I had a gun, I would've killed someone," Laufer said earlier this week, still a little shaken up. "I'd have to live with that for the rest of my life."
By CASEY GROVE
Anchorage Daily News