Crime & Courts

18-hour standoff on Anchorage Hillside ends when fugitive surrenders

An 18-hour standoff between SWAT teams and a man who refused to leave a house on the Anchorage Hillside ended Tuesday morning when police deployed gas into the home and forced him outside.

The standoff began at 4:29 p.m. Monday when police arrived at an apartment apparently in a house on Ponderosa Drive, a cul-de-sac street in a neighborhood off Hillside Drive, to serve a warrant on 49-year-old Kevin J. Hurley, the Anchorage Police Department said.

Hurley threatened to kill himself or commit "suicide by cop" and refused to leave the house, according to APD.

The standoff continued through the night, with the APD SWAT team being called away to a different standoff in East Anchorage. An Alaska State Troopers SWAT team replaced APD's.

Just after 10:30 a.m., police announced the troopers team had deployed gas into the house, forcing Hurley out.

"Hurley will be remanded on his outstanding drug-related extraditable warrant out of Idaho," the APD said in a news release. "He may also face additional charges for the standoff."

He was not injured, police said.

Michelle Theriault Boots

Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. She focuses on in-depth stories about the intersection of public policy and Alaskans' lives. Before joining the ADN in 2012, she worked at daily newspapers up and down the West Coast and earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon.

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