Crime & Courts

A man put a gun in his mouth, then crashed a stolen car on Fifth Avenue, Anchorage police say

Update Friday, July 14, 2017: Anchorage police said Friday that the man hospitalized after a pursuit ending in a three-vehicle wreck has been discharged from the hospital and arrested.

Tyler Wolff, 26, was discharged on Wednesday and taken into custody, police said in a statement.

Officers took Wolff directly to the Anchorage Correctional Complex on charges including assault and robbery, both in the first degree, police said.

Original story: Anchorage police pursued a man with a gun around several blocks near downtown Friday in an incident that included a carjacking and a car crash.

The man, whom police have not named or charged yet, was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The Anchorage Police Department got its initial report of a man with a gun in the parking lot of the Taco Bell on East Fifth Avenue around 1 p.m., spokesman MJ Thim said. When officers arrived, the man had a gun in his mouth. Officers tried to calm him down but the man ran off, he said.

Police caught up with him about a block away near a Wendy's restaurant and an RV park, where he continued to ignore officers' commands and pointed the gun at his head and placed it in his mouth, Thim said.

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That's when the man allegedly carjacked someone. Thim said the interaction between the man and the victim is unclear beyond the accusation that the person was forced out of the car at gunpoint.

"The officers attempted to stop the suspect in the vehicle with their own vehicles and were unable to do so," Thim said.

But the whole incident ended shortly after, when he crashed the stolen car near Ingra Street.

While fleeing westbound on Fifth Avenue, the suspect drove onto a sidewalk as he approached Ingra Street and ran a red light. He hit a minivan that had one occupant, causing the van to spin around, Thim said.

The suspect continued driving the stolen car and sideswiped a taxi before hitting a light pole at the intersection of Fifth and Ingra.

The van's driver was treated at the scene, and the taxi driver walked away uninjured, Thim said.

After the wreck, the man continued to ignore officers and pointed the gun at himself; police were able to stun the man with Tasers and take him into custody.

The incident closed the 500 block of Ingra Street for about an hour. It reopened to traffic around 3:30 p.m.

Multiple charges, including robbery and assault, are pending.

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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