WASILLA — Local police and residents of a North Lucille Street apartment complex are still confused following what may have been one of the shortest manhunts in city history.

Authorities briefly searched for three African American men who reportedly beat another man at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Officer Pat Kruchowski said. The search was called off after a few minutes when the victim, who gave conflicting reports to police, left the scene and refused medical treatment.

The fracas may have begun earlier when Kruchowski helped throw the man out of Tailgaters Bar & Grill. The man, who has not been charged with a crime and was not identified, is known to police, he said. About an hour later, a woman living in an apartment complex on North Lucille Street answered her door to find the man bleeding from his head, Kruchowski said.

He pushed open her door and said, ‘I need help, I’ve just been attacked,’” the officer said. “He’s knocking on the door bleeding profusely from the head and he passes out right there. There’s blood everywhere.”

The blood was from a badly lacerated forehead, Kruchowski said. The victim first said he was beaten by three African American men, then that he was attacked with a rock, and changed his story again to say he was struck by a car.

Others living at the apartment complex reported seeing three African American men running away from the area, which prompted police to conduct a brief search, Kruchowski said. But because the victim was changing his story and then left the scene, the search was called off.

“We haven’t finished our report yet, but if there’s no victim, there’s no crime,” he said. “We’ve got so many different stories.”

Kruchowski said he suspects the beating the man received may have been a drug deal gone bad.

“He was beat pretty good,” he said. “How and with what, we just don’t know for sure. We think maybe someone was hitting him on the ground and hit him with a rock.”

Police followed a trail of blood from the apartment to an area near the porch of another apartment complex nearby, Kruchowski said.

Police continue to investigate just what went on and what happened, Kruchowski said the incident shook up those living at the apartment complex.