Witnesses outside of a business on the 3900-block of Spenard Road called 911 to report an assault taking place at 12:14 am on Thursday morning.

Officers immediately responded to the location and witnesses at the scene pointed out the suspect walking across the parking lot. Officers approached the suspect, later identified as James M. Piliati, age 26, and issued several commands to stop before Piliati complied.

The investigation at the scene would determine that Piliati and the victim got into an altercation outside of the store before the victim went behind the building, re-emerged with a 2×4 and attempted to hit Piliati with it. Instead, Piliati punched the victim knocking him to the ground.

Once the victim was down, Piliati began stomping the victim on the head and continued stomping until the victim was rendered unconscious.

The victim was transported to the hospital with critical injuries. He is expected to survive.

Piliati was transported to the Anchorage Jail after being interviewed about the incident. He was charged with Assault I, Assault III, and Assault IV.

  assault, injuries, james, piliati, spenard