Three people were arrested and another escaped custody following an attempted traffic stop and search in the Muldoon area late Monday afternoon, APD reported.

At 5:33 on Monday afternoon an officer on patrol near Duben Avenue and Muldoon Road attempted to pull over a red Ford pickup, but the driver of the vehicle, rather than stop, sped away at a high rate of speed on the sidewalk on Muldoon.

Because of dangerous driving conditions, the patrol officer elected to not pursue.

Within seven minutes, APD received a call from a citizen reported that they almost were hit by the suspect vehicle. 10 more minutes would elapse before another caller reported from the area of Heatherbrook and Eastbrook, two miles distant, that a vehicle, which matched the description of the suspect vehicle, sped through the neighborhood, running a stop sign then abandoned the vehicle. The suspects ran off into the woods.

Officers responded to the area and began scouring the neighborhoods in the vicinity. Soon, a group of seven individuals were spotted walking near Kingsbridge and Scarborough about a half mile from the abandoned vehicle. Following the arrival of backup officers, the group was contacted and the driver of the eluding vehicle was singled out by description and identified as 33-year-old Gordon R Ratcliff. He was charged with Felony Eluding and Resisting Arrest. It would be found that he also had an existing warrant.

20-year-old Mark A Yunak, one of the group, was also contacted by police. He would initially give a false name, but after positive identification, it would be found he had an active warrant for Failure to Appear on the original charge of Criminal Mischief III. As a tense Yunak was being arrested and cuffed, two of the other suspects sprang from the group and began to flee. As the other officers took off after the escaping two, Yunak took that opportunity to fight with the officer and slip from his jacket, escaping and running into the woods where the pursuing officer lost track of him.

Passenger, 20-year-old Isaiah P Hank fled from officers until a taser warning was given, at which point he stopped and was taken into custody. He was found to be on probation in a previous stolen vehicle case. He was arrested on charges of Resisting Arrest and Violating his Conditions of Release.

The other passenger was caught in the same area and when taken into custody, gave officers a false name. When she was informed that the name given had a warrant for arrest, she gave her real name as 26-year-old Josephine T Stone. It would be discovered that she had a felony failure to appear warrant and also was found to be in possession of Methamphetamine. “Stone was remanded at the Anchorage Jail on her warrant and further charged with False Information, Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance IV, and two counts of Violating Conditions of Release for a Felony,” APD reported.

Additional officers responded to the scene and performed a search for Yunak, but were unable to locate him.

A check on the pickup would find it had not been reported as stolen. It was impounded for safekeeping while the registered owner could be contacted.

APD is asking for information from the public as to the whereabouts of Yunak.

  Alaska, Anchorage, arrest, car chase, duben, fleeing, gordon radcliff, hank, isaiah, josephine, kingbridge, mark yunak, muldoon, scarborough, search, stone