Man shot during pursuit

May 8, 2005

KATE GOLDEN and DAWN De BUSK/Frontiersman staff

PALMER - A Chickaloon man who allegedly led law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase, crashed his vehicle in a residential area, stole a nearby unlocked Subaru, and then barricaded himself in a friend's home on Strand Drive surrendered to Alaska State Troopers early Friday evening.

According to a Saturday press release, Gordon Carvalho, 22, received a non-life-threatening wound to his cheek when two officers fired their weapons at him during the pursuit, which began at about 2:43 p.m. on Bogard Road, wound through the Cottonwood Shores residential area and ended later that day at the Strand Drive home.

Carvalho received treatment at the scene and at Valley Hospital after the pursuit ended.

Sgt. Pat Davis, 37, shot at Carvalho when the suspect steered a Subaru directly toward Davis' vehicle, according to trooper dispatch information. At the time, Carvalho was re-entering Bogard Road after driving on a dirt trail.

Trooper Jason Carpenter, 32, fired his duty pistol when Carvalho emerged from his wrecked vehicle and fled toward the home of a family Carvalho reportedly knew.

Information on the number of shots fired or whose bullet hit Carvalho had not yet been released. Davis and Carpenter were placed on three days of administrative leave, which is department policy in the event of a shooting incident.

Carvalho, who was transferred to Anchorage Correction Complex East, was remanded on two warrants - one for fourth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance and failure to appear, and another on failure to comply with condition of release on a charge of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance.

Carvalho's bail was set at $500 and the judge requested that he get a new third-party custodian before being released, according to Sgt. Kevin James, with the Anchorage jail.

The pursuit kicked off when troopers stopped a black 1990 Chevy Corsica in which Carvalho was a passenger. Two of the people in the car ran away, leaving Carvalho to take the wheel, according to troopers.

Sirens screamed down the Palmer-Wasilla Highway and Trunk Road as police officers raced after the car.

Carvalho rammed the Corsica into a tree in the Cottonwood Shores subdivision off Trunk Road.

After crashing the car he was driving, Carvalho reportedly tried to break into homes and cars until stealing an unlocked green 2001 Subaru station wagon and zipping away as its owner fired shots at him.

The first stories emerged not from troopers or police, who were busy chasing, but from the local residents who caught glimpses of the chaos.

Rose Faginkrantz, who lives in the subdivision off Trunk Road, said, "They're all over the place with big, long rifle guns, and a helicopter just flew by."

Faginkrantz approached a policewoman. "'I have livestock, is there something I should be concerned about?' She said 'No, they're after somebody.'"

Faginkrantz had seen the car crash.

After school at Finger Lakes Elementary ended at 3:25 p.m., Dan Jackson, driver of the No. 21 school bus, was dropping his 42 charges off in the nearby Cottonwood Shores subdivision.

He received a call from school officials: "Come back," they said, "and don't let any more students off the bus." By that time, though, he'd seen so many police cars in the subdivision that he was letting kids off at their houses and watching them get to their doors.

Lebron McPhail, a Mat-Su Borough School District official, met that bus and another whose route included the area when they returned. Parents began to arrive in a line of mostly minivans and sport-utility vehicles to gather their progeny. Calls went back and forth as kids were accounted for. They were all there.

Cinda Iversen almost had a head-on collision with the speeding suspect in front of Colony Middle School, she said.

She was driving down Trunk Road, when she heard the wail of sirens. Immediately, she pulled to the side of the road behind another driver. In a split second, the vehicle ahead of her pulled back onto the pavement, and she saw a car coming toward her at what seemed like 100 miles per hour, she said. Iversen maneuvered back into the road and stopped, holding her breath as two police cars sped by on either side of her vehicle.

Scott Wick, a neighbor in the subdivision, couldn't get through the blockade. The police passed him on his way home.

"He came flyin' down … and had about six cops behind him," he said.

Six patrol cars were involved in the chase. Police requested the help of two aircraft for aerial surveillance: a trooper helicopter and a small plane belonging to the Alaska Bureau of Wildlife Enforcement.

Palmer Police officers ran the blockade at North 49th State Street and the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. Marked and unmarked police and trooper cars moved in and out.

Carvalho's girlfriend, a woman in a pink, hooded sweatshirt who didn't give her name, cried as she leaned against the hood of her white Honda. She lives in the house the guy was in, she said, dialing her cell phone.

She started crying when she heard from a trooper that he'd been shot in the jaw.

Shortly after Carvalho entered the home, two women and a teen-age boy left the home. Phone contact was established between the suspect, his girlfriend and troopers. Eventually, negotiations led to Carvalho's surrender.

After the suspect was taken into custody, a police pilot car began to escort residents in the area to their homes.

According to a trooper press release, Carvalho is a suspect in a number of vehicles and firearm thefts over the past week.

He is not a stranger to local law enforcement.

In May 2002, Carvalho was shot near the entrance of Wasilla McDonald's, receiving an injury to his shoulder, when he stopped to talk to another man, according to Wasilla police.

He was convicted Jan. 22, 2003, of attempted theft by receiving. That charge was reduced from an original count of theft by receiving.

Carvalho was found guilty that year of driving in violation of license limitation. A charge of driving without a valid license was dismissed in 2002.

He was convicted July 11, 2003, of harassment, offensive physical contact, after an original charge of fourth-degree assault was amended. The offense took place in Wasilla.Carvalho was found guilty the same day of violating a domestic-violence restraining order in connection with a Glennallen incident.And in October 2003, Carvalho was charged with first-degree assault - which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine - after shooting Aaron Reedy, then 23. Carvalho and Reedy had argued after Carvalho went to a residence at 1860 Knik-Goose Bay Road to get money Reedy owed him, charging documents stated.

Carvalho told police his girlfriend was sprayed with pepper spray during the argument, charging documents said. Witnesses said both Carvalho and Reedy had guns. Police said there were several shell casings in the house that appeared to have come from a rifle, and several bullet holes were found in the front of the house.

Information was not immediately available Saturday about whether or how Carvalho's first-degree assault case had been decided. Trooper spokesmen Greg Wilkinson and Tim DeSpain did not return phone calls, and information about the disposition of the October 2003 case was not available on the statewide court system Web site.

Contact Kate Golden at 352-2284 or kate.golden@frontiersman.com. Dawn De Busk can be reached

at 352-2252 or dawn.debusk@

frontiersman.com.