Three of four suspects indicted in a brutal beating earlier this month in East Anchorage are still on the loose, and police say their victim, dropped at a local hospital in a dog crate, almost died.
The men are charged with multiple felonies in the August 13 incident, including attempted murder and kidnapping.
Of the four indicted in 24-year-old Abshir Mohammed’s beating, only 29-year-old Jeffrey Ahvan has been apprehended. The others are Faamanu “Junior” Vaifanua, 29-year-old “Mac” Vaifanua and 24-year-old Rex Faumui.
According to the charging documents, the four bound and gagged Mohammed and beat him with an aluminum baseball bat, among other things, before shoving him in a dog crate. Mohammed apparently owed them about $2,700, according to the charges.
The charges say another man later took Mohammed to a hospital. Police say he remains in critical condition.
As the investigation began, though, homicide detectives were assigned to the case because at the time it looked like Mohammed might die.
“We didn’t know whether he was going to survive or not,” Sgt. Slawomir Markiewicz said. He heads the Anchorage Police Department’s homicide unit.
The investigation led detectives to a house on Cimarron Circle, where the beating took place inside a garage, the charges say. The investigators got search warrants for the home and discovered an extensive surveillance system and a camera in the garage.
“The entire incident is shown on video, where the victim is beat up, tied up, and then beat up again,” Markiewicz said. “And in the video we can see clearly what suspects do what to the victim. And that makes a big difference as far as charges, when you have an incident like that that is not caught on video, sometimes you have conflicting statements, people minimizing their involvement. In this case, there can’t really be any argument, the video speaks for itself.”
Multiple investigators helped in the lead up to the search warrants, Markiewicz said. At one point that involved searching through state Permanent Fund Dividend records.
But it’s now up to the officers on Anchorage’s streets to track down the three suspects still on the lam. Police say members of the public should not attempt to contact the suspects, as they are considered armed and dangerous.
Anchorage police and their federal counterparts at the U.S. Marshals Service are busy looking for Faumui and the Vaifanuas, Markiewicz said.
“I’m convinced that they will be arrested sooner rather than later,” Markiewicz said Wednesday.
Anchorage police say the suspects are wanted on extraditable warrants, meaning they could be arrested in the Lower 48 or even another country and brought back to Alaska to face the charges, but detectives do not believe the three have left the state.
Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Casey here.
