Man charged with trying to run over trooper in Glenn Highway pursuit

PALMER — Alaska State Troopers say a 33-year-old Anchorage man was charged with attempted murder after he tried to run over a trooper during a chaotic high-speed pursuit on the Glenn Highway last week.

The incident started Friday afternoon when troopers Sgt. Brent Johnson spotted Russell Blakeman Jr. driving on the Old Glenn Highway with a "large hole" in the windshield of his Hyundai Tiburon, according to charging documents filed Monday in Palmer Superior Court. The Tiburon's driver refused to pull over on the two-lane road that runs through Butte.

Blakeman sped away, at times driving faster than 80 mph and passing vehicles on a double yellow line with oncoming traffic, Johnson wrote in a sworn affidavit filed with charges.

Blakeman turned south onto the Glenn Highway and then turned around at Eklutna to head north again, Johnson wrote. He reached speeds of 105 mph.

Blakeman lost control and knocked down two large light poles along the highway, getting high-centered on one before driving away again, the affidavit states. Coming out of the ditch near the Knik River Bridge, he hit a patrol car driven by trooper Daron Cooper, nearly causing Cooper to lose control.

Near Mile 34, as trooper Andy Deveaux walked down the highway after laying down spike strips, Blakeman swerved toward the trooper, Johnson wrote. The trooper ran backward to avoid Blakeman, who was going an estimated 35 to 40 mph.

Blakeman hit the trooper's parked car hard enough that it entered southbound highway traffic, where it was hit by a van driven by a Wasilla couple, according to the affidavit.

The collision caused airbag deployment in all three cars: the patrol car, the van and Blakeman's. A police dog named Skippy in the patrol car received minor injuries, troopers said.

Troopers blocked Blakeman's car and a "brief struggle" ensued while he tried to avoid getting handcuffed after they pulled him out, Johnson wrote.

Along with attempted murder, Blakeman is charged with five counts of third-degree assault, failure to stop at the direction of a police officer and resisting arrest. An additional charge of harming a police dog was dismissed.

As of Monday, he remained jailed at the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility.