Crime & Courts

2 arrested, 1 at large in weekslong Anchorage 'crime spree'

An Anchorage man and a teen have been arrested on felony charges and a third suspect is being sought by police in connection with a string of armed robberies across Anchorage, prosecutors said Monday.

Anchorage District Attorney Clint Campion said in a Monday statement that 20-year-old Detallion Owens and 16-year-old King Dunlap, charged as an adult, were indicted last week in a "winter crime spree" beginning in late January and continuing through February. A third suspect, 21-year-old Delander Owens Jr., remains at large.

Assistant district attorney Kevin Bergt, who is prosecuting the case, said Monday that Detallion and Delander Owens are brothers, and that police believe Dunlap recently moved to the Anchorage area from Memphis, Tennessee.

The three suspects were recognized by a resident of a Karluk Street apartment that they robbed at gunpoint at about 2 a.m. Jan. 27, Bergt said. While that robbery was apparently a targeted crime, the other three didn't seem to be, he said.

"These all appear to be random crimes of opportunity," Bergt said.

Bergt said the second robbery, in the early evening hours of Feb. 5, was a vehicle theft from a pizza-delivery driver headed to a delivery on East 20th Avenue.

"A young woman was sitting in the back seat of the car at the time," Campion wrote. "She was ordered out of the car under threat of force a block down the road. The car was recovered days later."

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A Glock 42 handgun was also stolen from the vehicle, he said.

Bergt said Detallion Owens and Dunlap were identified in a photo lineup by the victims of the third robbery, a Feb. 19 holdup at a Woodway Circle home in South Anchorage. The robbers took another vehicle as well as property from the home, after a man at the home let them inside at about 3:30 p.m.

"Initially, he encountered them in his driveway. They asked if they could wait at the end of his driveway for a ride that was coming and he said he was OK with that," Bergt said. "Later they came up, knocked on his door and asked if they could come inside because it was cold outside; they gained entrance to his home under false pretenses, and once that occurred the robbery ensued."

Police got a lead in the case the following day, when the 2009 Subaru Forester stolen from the South Anchorage home was discovered wrecked near Bentree Circle off DeBarr Road shortly after 3 p.m. Two men were seen leaving the crash site, and hours later, the final robbery took place as a man left his workplace at a dental clinic on DeBarr.

"Two men approached him and held him at gunpoint while ransacking his pockets," Campion wrote. "The two men took the victim's car and were later apprehended near the car and were armed with pistols."

A tracking feature on one of the victim's stolen devices helped police locate the suspects, Bergt said.

"They were caught by the fact that the dental hygienist had left his iPad on the backseat," Bergt said. "He literally used his 'Find My iPad' feature to find the vehicle."

Prosecutors said police found Dunlap with the same Glock 42 taken from the pizza-delivery driver's vehicle.

Delander and Detallion Owens were charged with a total of 14 felony counts, three of them first-degree robbery. Dunlap was charged with four felonies, including one robbery count.

Anyone with information on Delander Owens' whereabouts is asked to call Anchorage police and speak with Detective Jim Anderson at 907-786-8900.

Chris Klint

Chris Klint is a former ADN reporter who covered breaking news.

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