Palmer woman escapes attacker

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - A Palmer woman is recovering at her mother's home in the Farm Loop area, after her former boyfriend allegedly beat her with a baseball bat Monday evening.

Tariek Oviuk, 23, of Point Hope, is charged with attempted murder in the attack on Grace Oomittuk, 23, who suffered deep cuts on her face and head.

Court documents stated that Oomittuk was covered in blood when she was taken to Valley Hospital and treated for multiple knife wounds on her arms, legs, back and head.

Alaska State Trooper Jason Fieser responded to the scene after dispatchers at the Palmer Police Department determined the location of a disconnected 911 call from a cellular phone.

When the original call was disconnected, dispatchers called the number back. They heard a woman answer and then drop the phone. Dispatchers could hear her pleading in the background, saying she would stay with the suspect and marry him if that's what he wanted.

Oomittuk said in an interview Thursday that she was returning home from dropping off her 19-year-old brother at the Palmer Job Corps center Monday night. She parked her car in a detached garage, which has an apartment above it where Oviuk had been staying for several weeks, as he visited their two children. Oomittuk's 15-year-old brother was in their mother's house nearby, with Oomittuk's children.

Oomittuk said she didn't see anyone in the garage when she parked, but after closing the garage door, she turned around and saw Oviuk standing behind her.

Oomittuk said she first met Oviuk in Point Hope, where they grew up, dated for seven years and had two children together. She left Oviuk more than a year ago, saying he was abusive and would hit her.

In July, she took her kids to live in Palmer with her mother.

Oomittuk told troopers that for the past several weeks, Oviuk had stayed in the apartment above the garage to spend Christmas with them and visit with his children. Oviuk even stayed with the children for two weeks recently, while Oomittuk was working in Point Hope.

"I invited him to spend Christmas," Oomittuk said. "He said he had changed and was willing to just be friends."

Oomittuk told troopers that on the morning of the alleged attack, Oviuk had tried to talk her into moving to Fairbanks with him. Oomittuk said she wasn't moving because she was having a relationship with a man who doesn't hit her, and she thought Oviuk was OK with that.

The night of the alleged incident, however, Oomittuk said she saw a strange look in Oviuk's eyes.

"His face looked different," she said. "I could tell; he always had that face when he was starting to hit me. He said we had to talk about us. I told him there was no us."

As soon as she realized something was amiss, Oomittuk said she dialed 911 on the cellular phone in her pocket. She tried to do it without Oviuk noticing.

The first time she dialed, she said she wasn't sure if she got the correct number, so she hung up and dialed again. Oomittuk could hear people talking through the phone and tried to cover up the receiver end so dispatchers could still hear what was going on without Oviuk knowing.

"I had no idea if the police were coming," she said. "I was just hoping they would come."

According to charging documents, Oviuk punched her face several times. She fell to the ground and he allegedly began kicking her head, before pointing at a nearby baseball bat and threatening to kill her.

Oviuk then allegedly pulled out a knife, put it back in his pocket, and picked up the bat, with which he reportedly hit her head, repeatedly. Oomittuk said he then dropped the bat and began cutting her with a knife.

"For maybe 10 minutes I was trying to talk him out of killing me," Oomittuk said. "I couldn't see him because of the blood in my face. I had to wipe the blood off my face just to see him and I told him I would marry him and clean up the mess if he wouldn't kill me."

Oviuk allegedly agreed to the deal, saying they could just tell the police that someone had jumped them. Oomittuk said he let her go out the garage door to take a shower and clean up.

As the garage door opened, Trooper Fieser reported seeing a woman, covered in blood, come screaming out of the shed. Oviuk came out next with a knife in his hand.

"He said he was going to kill himself because we were there to take him to jail," Fieser wrote in his affidavit. Oviuk then allegedly ran into a nearby open field and held a knife to his throat. Fieser said there was blood coming from a wound on the right side of Oviuk's throat and he wanted troopers to just shoot him, stating that the devil had entered his body.

After convincing Oviuk to put down the knife, Fieser handcuffed him and escorted him back to the shed where he had come from.

Fieser reported seeing pools and drops of blood all over the concrete floor, along with long hairs and blood spatters by the garage door.

Emergency medical services workers took Oomittuk to Valley Hospital. She is now resting at her mother's home, with her children and brothers.

Oomittuk said she is not sure what the future holds, but for now she is just trying to recover.

"I feel sore and can barely open my right eye," she said. "I also have staples on my head where he cut me. There is one cut all the way to the skull."

After receiving treatment for apparent self-inflicted wounds, Oviuk was booked early Tuesday morning at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on a charge of attempted murder. On Wednesday he was transferred to Anchorage's Cook Inlet Pre-Trial, where he is currently being held without bail.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.