[dropcap]A[/dropcap]n Anchorage car thief took Anchorage patrol officers on an extended pursuit throughout Anchorage during the early morning hours on Tuesday that ended in his apprehension before daylight.

The prolonged and action-packed incident began at approximately 1 am on Tuesday at the Holiday gas station on C Street. It was there where a security guard at the station was in the process of trespassing 22-year-old Jasten K Fujishiro when Fujishiro jumped into the guard’s 2014 Nissan Xterra security vehicle an drove off. Police responded to the scene after the incident was reported, but were unable to locate Fujishiro.

Approximately an hour later at 2:13 am, a call went in to dispatch reporting a hit-and-run. The complainant reported that they had been hit by a security vehicle that had ran the red light at the Seward Highway/Tudor intersection. The caller reported that they had attempted to avoid the collision by driving into the ditch but was hit anyway. The caller continued, saying that the vehicle fled, running another red light. The driver reported the vehicle was driving erratically prior to the collision.

A patrol officer spotted the suspect vehicle about 25 minutes later at Dowling and the Old Seward. Fujishiro ended up between two patrol cars traveling that direction at the Old Seward and Dimond and sped up and passed the front patrol car running a red light there. No pursuit took place.

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He would slow down, flip off the officers, and swerve like he was trying to hit either the officers and/or their patrol vehicles

-APD

[/pullquote] Minutes later, Fujishiro encountered a traffic stop between a patrol vehicle and another car. Fujishiro continuously drove past the traffic stop according to the report. “He would slow down, flip off the officers, and swerve like he was trying to hit either the officers and/or their patrol vehicles,” APD revealed. Still, officers did not take up pursuit.

At 3:25 am, Fujishiro encountered another patrol vehicle westbound on Tudor near the  Old Seward and began following it several car lengths behind as the two vehicles passed through the intersection at A Street and 36th. At that point, Fujishiro sped up and closed the distance between the two vehicles to within just a few feet. Thinking he was going to get hit, the officer sped up as Fujishiro backed off. 

The patrol vehicle pulled up to a red light and came to a stop. He saw the security vehicle speeding toward him and accelerated through the light to avoid impact. He was unsuccessful and was impacted from behind by Fujishiro. Fujishiro let off the gas and fell behind only to speed up and make another attempt to crash into the patrol officer.

The officer sped up, as did Fujishiro, while other officers responded to the moving scene. Those officers attempted to block Fujishiro in, but gave up after Fujishiro refused to stop and sped off. “The pursuit was called off when Fujishiro refused to stop and was driving at high rates of speed through Downtown where snow removal workers were operating and pedestrians were walking,” Police reported.

The various officers stopped at 6th and G Street to find that three of the vehicles had been damaged by Fujishiro but were still operational. In all, five vehicles were damaged including the initial collision at the Seward Highway and Tudor and the security vehicle.

At 3:46 Fujishiro’s spree came to a close as officers located him near Benson and Cheechako and blocked him in. It was then that Fujishiro gave himself up with no further incident. He was taken into custody and taken to the department for questioning.

Following questioning, Fujishiro was remanded to the Anchorage Jail on charges of Vehicle Theft I, Theft II, two counts of Fail to Stop, three counts of Assault III, four counts of Leaving the Scene of a Crash, Violation of Conditions of Release, Reckless Driving, Reckless Endangerment, and Criminal Mischief. In all, Fujishiro had 15 charges leveled at him.

  Anchorage, assault, car, chase, collision, crash, criminal, failure to stop, Jasten Fujishiro, leaving, police, reckless, scene, shase, theft, vehicle