Glenn Highway chase results in attempted murder charge for Anchorage man

PALMER — An attempt by Alaska State Troopers on Friday to perform a traffic stop resulted in a 33-year-old Anchorage man being arrested on one count of attempted murder of a police officer, three counts of assault in the third degree on a police officer, harming a police dog in the second degree and a felony elude/evade charge.

It all started at 3:06 p.m. when AST Sgt. Brent Johnson attempted a routine traffic stop on a 2008 Hyundai Tiburon with a hole in its windshield at mile 9 of the Old Glenn Highway.

When the driver would not pull over, Johnson maintained chase as the cars moved southbound at a high rate of speed, exceeding 80 mph.

Johnson reported that the driver was driving recklessly, passing other motorists in no passing zones, into oncoming traffic. At the intersection with the Glenn Highway, Johnson terminated his chase and slowed down. At the Eklutna overpass, Johnson spotted the vehicle at the dead end near the new Eklutna Power Plant. Johnson said the vehicle then turned back in his direction toward the highway and narrowly missed his vehicle. Without turning on his lights or sirens, Johnson called for other AST units in the area as the chase headed back toward the Valley.

Near mile 31 of the Knik River Bridge another trooper spotted the car traveling at speeds exceeding 100 mph, and at mile 33.5 the car lost control and went off the road, striking two large highway light poles and knocking them both to the ground, Sgt. Johnson wrote. One of the poles remained under the car, but the driver continued to try to drive away, coming out of the ditch and emerging back on the highway, where it struck the vehicle of Trooper D. Cooper. Johnson wrote that the collision nearly caused Cooper to lose control as the suspect accelerated north.

A spike strip laid down at mile 34.

“Upon nearing the spikes, AST backed off the suspect vehicle and I observed the suspect was straddling both lanes,” Johnson wrote. “I also observed there were no vehicles blocking the outside lane… no Troopers were in this lane and the spike strip was not deployed to cover this lane. The suspect suddenly swerved hard to the left, directly toward Trooper Deveaux, who began to run backwards to avoid being struck. At this time the suspect was traveling an estimated 35 to 40 mph. As Trooper Devaux ran clear, Trooper Steen was just parking his vehicle next to Trooper Devaux’s parked patrol car, causing it to roll backwards an estimated 60 to 80 feet into the southbound lanes, where it was struck by a 2005 Chevrolet van… The impact was severe enough to activate the airbags in the suspect vehicle, the unoccupied Trooper vehicle and the Chevrolet van.”

Troopers converged on the suspect and Russell Dale Blakeman Jr. was arrested, after resisting being handcuffed, Johnson wrote. Johnson said Blakeman attempted to avoid being cuffed by “pulling his arms away violently and trying to tuck them under his body.”

Troopers reported that Blakeman’s license had been revoked because of a prior felony DUI conviction.

Blakeman was arraigned and his bail set at $50,000 with a court-appointed third party custodian. His preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 19.

Wasilla man arrested on three DV assault charges

WASILLA —Manuel J.V. Galindo, 22, of Wasilla, was arrested on three felony assault charges after his girlfriend reported that he had strangled and bitten her during an assault on Saturday morning.

The victim told police Galindo had thrown her on the bed, gotten on top of her and pressed his forearm against her throat. When she tried to grab for her phone, she said Galindo bit her arm to prevent her.

Later, according to charging documents, Galindo threw the victim against the wall and again used his forearm to strangle her.

Police say the victim’s roommate then burst in and yelled at Galindo to stop, which he did, only to turn around, run back upstairs and attack the victim again, hitting her another eight times, she told police.

She said Galindo then called a friend who picked him up. Police tracked him down at that friend’s house, where he was arrested on assault 2, assault 3 and assault 4 felonies.

He was transported to Mat-Su Pretrial and released on bail of $2,500 with a court-appointed third party.

His preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 20 at 1 p.m.