Police end fugitive’s run

PALMER — An Anchorage man on the lam for a month was jailed Sunday on charges stemming from a high-speed chase on the Glenn Highway.

The chase happened the first night of the Alaska State Fair. But, until Sunday, the driver remained at large.

Matthew Fox, 28, was that driver, according to the Palmer Police Department. The vehicle he was allegedly driving was reported just before midnight Aug. 21 as a possible drunk driver heading into Palmer. Police caught up with the vehicle and pulled it over near the fairgrounds.

Palmer Police Detective Sgt. Kelly Turney was on duty that night and said Fox initially gave the name Ryan Reynolds to officers, but it was an alias he’d apparently used one too many times, since it was listed in police databases as a known alias for Fox.

Also listed in the database, Turney said, was an outstanding warrant for Fox’s arrest on charges of domestic violence assault.

Officers asked Fox to get out of the vehicle, a Ford Explorer, but Fox took off, Turney said, tearing back toward Anchorage on the Glenn Highway.

On the ramp onto the Glenn Highway ramp, Fox lost control and hit a guardrail, Turney said. The Explorer spun around but, instead of stopping, Fox kept going.

“He comes back in the wrong direction down the on-ramp and nearly head-ons one of our officers there. Actually, I think two of our officers,” Turney said. Heading back toward Palmer, Fox sideswiped a vehicle driving the other direction down the highway, doing extensive damage to the other car, which held four occupants.

“He comes back into town through Palmer, where [Alaska State Troopers] give us a hand and we end up using the tire deflation devices,” Turney said.

Those devices worked, he said, popping the Explorer’s two front tires. That, added to the damage dealt the Explorer when it hit the guardrail and sideswiped the other car, left Fox’s vehicle pretty much inoperable, Turney said.

But the chase wasn’t over.

Near the fairgrounds, Fox stopped the car and bolted on foot, running into the woods. Despite an extensive search, Turney said officers couldn’t find him.

Fox’s wife, Arizona Fox, was a passenger in the Explorer the whole time. When Fox ran, she stayed. Officers discovered she was intoxicated and charged her with underage drinking, Turney said.

Arizona Fox had a protective order out against her husband, which added another charge to the list of charges for which police eventually sought a warrant to arrest him.

Thirteen charges were on that warrant, Turney said, including two of assault of a police officer — for that near-head-on on the on-ramp — five of assault and one each of failure to stop for a peace officer, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, providing false information, leaving the scene of an accident and violating a protective order.

Fox remained on the lam a month before Anchorage police picked him up Sunday. Monday, he was set to make his first appearance in Anchorage court on the new charges.