Troopers nab Wasilla man on lam

WASILLA — Alaska State Troopers have arrested a Wasilla man who was on the lam since running from them Wednesday night.

Robert Ryan Greer, Jr. 22, of Wasilla, was taken to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center late Wednesday night to have his blood drawn as part of an investigation into whether he was drunk when he ran his blue 2003 Ford Focus off the road near the intersection of Bogard and Seldon roads.

Once the blood was drawn, Greer took off running across the Parks Highway to Fireweed Lane where he was last seen running down a four-wheeler trail.

Last seen, that is, until Thursday morning shortly before noon. According to trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters, a call came in from a concerned citizen about a suspicious person — later determined to be Greer — near Sweetie Pie Street in Wasilla. The man was soaking wet and had a dark sweater around his hands, Peters said. The caller couldn’t tell if he was still handcuffed.

Trooper Mike Wooten brought Greer into custody without incident, Peters said. The tipster, Peters said, had heard reports of Greer’s escape on the radio earlier that morning.

The whole thing started at 9:05 p.m. Wednesday night when troopers received report about a car in a ditch. Troopers spoke to two witnesses who said a white man in his early 20s with a beard ran from the car.

“We were able to identify who the driver potentially was and we were able to contact him via his cell phone,” Peters said. Eventually, “We were able to convince him to come back to the scene,” and a friend drove him there, she said.

Troopers determined Greer was intoxicated and took him to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center to have his blood drawn, according to a trooper press release.

During the blood draw, troopers report, Greer’s handcuffs were moved from behind his back to in front of him. After the draw, seeing that Greer was cooperative, troopers report, they left his hands in front.

“It’s not uncommon for us to let cooperative people have their hands cuffed in front,” Peters said.

In the parking lot, though, Greer’s cooperation ended and he bolted, troopers report.

Troopers followed him down an embankment, across the Parks Highway and onto Fireweed Lane where they lost sight of him.

They called out a helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft. Peters said the helicopter was aloft about three and a half hours but made little headway.

The last time a handcuffed suspect ran from troopers in the Valley was Aug. 9, 2005, when Nicholas Alan Hill, 20, kicked out the window of a patrol car and ran.

Troopers had arrested Hill on an outstanding warrant out of Valdez for being a minor consuming alcohol, according to Frontiersman reports from the time. The arresting officer had picked Hill up in Talkeetna but was waylaid on his way to book Hill into jail in Palmer by a car accident on the Parks Highway. The officer was clearing the accident scene when Hill escaped.

Hill was missing for five days until he turned up floating in Nancy Lake, having apparently drowned still wearing his handcuffs, according to the Frontiersman reports.

Asked whether Thursday’s search was any larger than usual in light of what happened to Hill, Peters said she didn’t think so.

“I think regardless we would have been doing a big search effort. I think we quickly notified the public to try to get as much help as possible because we didn’t want a similar outcome to the past incident,” she said.

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