‘He locked onto me’: 60-mile crime spree that closed Seward Highway started with theft of pickup in Anchorage

The driver accused of shutting down the Seward Highway for two hours Tuesday with a chaotic vehicular crime spree was a 41-year-old man from Utqiagvik.

Lance Colby Harrington was arrested on multiple charges and jailed after he got out of the hospital for treatment of "minor to moderate" injuries, Alaska State Troopers said.

Harrington is accused of stealing a pickup from an out-of-town family member in Anchorage, ramming an SUV in Turnagain Pass, carjacking a Palmer man in another truck and crashing that pickup before unsuccessfully trying to steal a third.

Officers who tried to question him once he was taken into custody said Harrington's pupils appeared dilated, his speech "rapid and incoherent," court documents say. He talked about people chasing him and refused to provide a breath sample or participate in field sobriety tests.

During an arraignment hearing Wednesday, Harrington said he makes $2,300 a week on the North Slope but is recently divorced with "no money in the bank."

District Court Judge Brian Clark appointed a public defender to review his case, noting his relatively high income level might disqualify him.

Clark set bail at $10,000 cash/corporate appearance bond and $1,000 cash performance, with house arrest under state Pretrial Enforcement Division monitoring. Harrington was instructed to stay away from his carjacking victim.

The hourslong incident began just after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Anchorage police tried but failed to stop Harrington, driving a stolen 2015 Toyota Tacoma, according to a sworn police report filed with the charges Wednesday. They called in a locate for the Tacoma, traveling at a high rate of speed south on the highway near Mile 90.

Harrington drove up into Turnagain Pass, and attempted a U-turn near Mile 72, the document says. He collided with a Dodge Journey occupied by five people who sustained minor injuries, troopers said.

Paul Caron, the 46-year-old engineer from Palmer who got carjacked, said he was driving home from an early-morning trip to Seward when he pulled his 2017 Chevrolet pickup into a pullout along the highway for a nap — and woke to the sound of screeching tires.

As Caron watched, he said Wednesday, the Tacoma rammed the SUV parked in front of him. He wondered briefly if he should get out and help, but better judgment told him to stay in and see what happened next.

A man later identified as Harrington got out, spun around, and "locked onto me looking at him," Caron said. "It was like a deadlock. He immediately started coming my way."

Caron said by the time he started the truck, Harrington was already banging on the passenger window. Caron spotted a way out, cut the wheel to the left, and accelerated onto the highway after finding a gap in traffic.

Then Caron checked his rear-view mirror, he said. "Sure enough, there's the guy."

Harrington was sitting in the bed of Caron's pickup as it sped down the highway. He was drinking a bottle of water he'd found. Then he dumped the rest on his head.

"My brain's now figuring out what the hell to do," Caron said. Speed up? Stop? Find something to crash into without killing himself too?

Then he watched the man in his truck find a foot-long length of angle iron, swing it, and break out the back window before leaning into the opening clutching the metal and telling him to pull the truck over "or I'm going to smash you over the head with this," Caron said. "At that point, all the thoughts went away."

He found a pullout a quarter mile ahead, told Harrington where he was going, and came to a stop near another car after 15 seconds of silence when, Caron said, he had no idea what was about to happen.

Caron got out, got a safe distance away, and turned around with his fist up, he said. He saw his driver side door close and the man in his truck take off southbound on the highway.

Witnesses said Harrington sped away at over 100 mph before trying to swerve around a semi tractor-trailer and losing control near Mile 65 and skidding into a ditch, troopers said. He kept driving in the ditch until the pickup hit a culvert and creek drainage ditch and rolled multiple times.

He was ejected and thrown into the woods, troopers said. But he emerged, ran to the highway — and tried to steal another vehicle that had stopped for the collision.

"At this point, a crowd of witnesses had gathered," said the sworn report filed by Assistant District Attorney Kevin Bergt.

A U.S. Forest Service agent and an off-duty law enforcement officer on vacation from another state tried to take Harrington into custody, troopers said. He resisted, injuring the agent's knee.

A trooper arrived at the scene and arrested Harrington on charges of first-degree robbery and vehicle theft, third- and fourth-degree assault, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest.

Caron said he didn't know Harrington, or what prompted him to act the way he did Tuesday.

"He had probably no clue what happened yesterday," he said. "There was no obvious sign of reasonability in him."