Robbery arrests await further investigation

WASILLA — Police said Thursday that after talking to everyone involved, they decided not to arrest anyone in a robbery Wednesday on Melanie Avenue. Yet.

“Things were not as clear as were first reported,” Wasilla Police Department Deputy Chief Greg Wood said of the picture officers received.

The only person hurt in the robbery, as far as officers could tell, was one man whose hand was cut.

Officer Rick Manrique with the Wasilla Police Department said the initial call was for a disturbance in the 2300 block of Melanie.

According to dispatchers, there were, “a number of people screaming and chasing each other in the street,” Manrique said.

On scene, a man and a woman said they’d stopped to give three men — strangers to them — a ride. At some point the men grabbed them, put a knife to their throats, and demanded money.

They were, “after valuables is what it sounded like,” Manrique said.

A struggle ensued, Manrique said. The man who’d stopped to pick up the hitchhikers had his hand cut. And the SUV they were driving went into a ditch.

The hitchhikers then fled, Manrique said.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Wasilla Deputy Chief Greg Wood said officers with help from an Alaska State Trooper police dog, had tracked three men from the Melanie Avenue scene to the 2300 block of Success Drive.

“We served the search warrant there. The apartment was empty,” Wood said. “We announced that we were going to send the dog into the crawlspace and three men came out of the crawlspace and gave themselves up.”

Those three men were taken to the Wasilla Police Department and interviewed, Wood said. After the interviews they were released. They were not formally charged with anything or arrested.

Therefore, he could not release their names nor the names of the victims.

He said his officers want to make sure they’ve got the facts straight before they slap handcuffs on anyone.

“We certainly wouldn’t want to arrest the wrong people without having the whole story,” Wood said.