Suspect punches police dog

WASILLA — A man found sleeping in a convenience store parking lot wound up leading a police chase that ended with him alleging punching a police dog in the head before landing in jail for his sixth driving under the influence charge.

According to documents Alaska State Trooper Daron Cooper filed in court last week, Steven W. Stewart, 42, came to troopers’ attention at 4:21 a.m., Thursday.

“The store clerk of the Valley Country Store located at the intersection of Church Road and Seldon Road report(ed) that a male wearing glasses and a sweatshirt was on the property and was asked to leave, but did not leave,” Cooper writes.

Cooper arrived and talked to the clerk, then went into the parking lot where he found the man sleeping in the driver’s seat of a Ford Focus. One leg was propped on the steering wheel and a cup of coffee had spilled in his lap.

The man told Cooper his name was “Bill Johns” and wouldn’t give his real name until after Cooper had assured him his mother could pick up the Focus, “because he was surely going to jail because he had a warrant for his arrest.”

Assurances that mom could come get the car seemed to placate him briefly. But then Cooper asked about “what I believed to be a drug kit underneath his driver’s seat,” Cooper writes. That’s when Stewart jumped back in the car and sped off.

“I then followed the vehicle. While behind, I observed the vehicle to travel at 70 mph in a posted 55 mph zone,” Cooper writes.

Twice the Focus swerved into the oncoming lane and narrowly missed an AST patrol car heading the other way. Stewart also tossed things out the window, including “gloves, donuts and a loaded syringe.”

The rest of the pursuit occurred at low speeds — 10 to 15 mph by Cooper’s account — but involved a lot of swerving into oncoming traffic. Eventually the chase ended at Seldon Road and Wards Way, but Stewart wouldn’t get out of the car.

“A passenger side window was eventually broken out of the vehicle and AST K9 Blazer was eventually deployed, apprehending Stewart. During the apprehension, Stewart was observed to wrap his legs around K9 Blazer and punch him several times in the head before giving up,” according to Cooper’s court filing.

According to an AST newsletter from July, Blazer is Cooper’s police dog, a Belgian Malinois

At 5:09 a.m., less than an hour after that initial call, Stewart was arrested. First stop was the hospital, where he was “treated for injuries sustained during the K9 apprehension,” Cooper writes.

Though he doesn’t mention a specific drug in the filing, Cooper does reference track marks on Stewart’s arms and his inability to stay awake, seemingly indications of intravenous drug use.

Stewart was convicted of five charges of driving under the influence in the past 10 years, including two in 2008. That record makes his arrest on Thursday a felony drunken driving charge.

He was also charged with evidence tampering, failure to stop for a peace officer, reckless driving, providing false information to a peace officer, driving on a revoked license and harming a police dog.

He was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility where, as of Monday, he was still housed, according to jail records.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.