Details reveal bizarre conflict

WASILLA — A bizarre standoff with a homeless man apparently immune to electric shocks and beanbag bullets on the Parks Highway last week began out of the blue, court documents reveal.

According to a sworn statement Officer Rick Manrique of the Wasilla Police Department filed in the case against Robert Compton, the incident was first reported at 2:30 p.m., July 16.

A man reported that Compton “had become enraged for no apparent reason and spit on (his) vehicle, pulling out a large sheath knife and screaming at (the man) and his children as he approached the truck in a threatening manner,” Manrique wrote.

This was at Parks Highway and Weber Street. Manrique responded and talked to the man and his child, who said the encounter had frightened them, and they described their assailant.

“The description sounded like Robert Compton, a homeless subject known to me from numerous contacts,” Manrique wrote.

He said he found Compton on the Parks Highway near the Little Miller’s ice cream shop.

“Compton was ordered to stop and instead pulled the knife, telling me to ‘come on, let’s do this, I will kill you,’” Manrique wrote.

Manrique said that Compton refused to drop the knife. Manrique called for backup.

“(He) became increasingly threatening, telling me I was alone and no one was coming. I deployed all of my Taser cartridges,” Manrique wrote. “They were ineffective. Compton just ripped the darts out.”

Manrique and multiple other Wasilla officers followed Compton three quarters of a mile up the Parks Highway, guns drawn.

“Compton would demand to be shot and lunged at officers several times,” Manrique says in his statement. “Compton was Tasered approximately 15 times, Tasered with 12-guage XREP rounds which he tore out with no effect. Compton was hit with five 12-guage bean bag rounds as well with no apparent effect.”

Compton eventually gave up, tossing down the knife and submitting to an arrest. After doctors at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center cleared him, he was booked into the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on five assault charges for threatening police and two assault counts for initially threatening the man and his son.

Compton’s bail was set at $5,000 and he’ll need to find a third party to watch over him before he can be released.

Compton’s court file lists his occupation as “disabled” and indicates he has no phone number and no mailing address.

Court databases list a long line of criminal cases brought against Compton in jurisdictions from Kenai to Kodiak to Anchorage to Hoonah. They include drunken driving, public urination and “public excretion” as well as assault, shoplifting, trespassing and loitering.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.