Togiak Convenience Store Robbed at Gunpoint Tuesday, Suspect Taken into Custody Wednesday


AST revealed on Thursday that they had made an arrest in connection with the Tuesday armed robbery of Happy’s convenience store in Togiak at noon on Wednesday.

Troopers in Dillingham were notified of the holdup at 12:45 am and the Bethel-based Alaska Bureau of Investigation and a King Salmon-based trooper responded to the scene in the remote village on Wednesday afternoon and opened an investigation.

According to the report, troopers were told that “a male entered the store with a rifle, pointed it at the store clerk, stole the cash register, and fled the store.” Troopers were also informed that as the robber left, he dropped his rifle.

The local village police officer responded to the robbery following the incident and recovered the rifle. Upon inspection, the rifle was found to be a BB gun.

The robber was not found at that time.

During their investigation, investigators developed a suspect and identified that person as Christopher Wade Chuckwuk, age 34 of Togiak. It was also found that Chuckwuk also had an active no-bail warrant for parole violation.

Troopers searched the village for Chuckwuk, but were unsuccessful. They were informed that the suspect had fled the village on a snow machine.

The King Salmon-based trooper overnighted in Togiak to await the suspect’s return, and at noon the trooper located Chuckwuk and took him into custody.

He was transported and remanded to the Dillingham jail and charged with Robbery 1, Robbery 2, Theft 2 and Criminal Mischief 5.