Pornography for teens is a bad look for libraries, and so are people shooting up drugs and overdosing in the elevators. Now, you may want to be armed — at least with a taser — if you go to the Anchorage Loussac Library.
According to Anchorage police, 32-year-old Corey L. Ahkivgak, was sitting at a table in the lobby on Sunday afternoon, when he stood up and ran toward a man and woman who were returning books. Ahkivgak stabbed the woman in the back and fled the building on foot. The woman was taken to the hospital by ambulance and is expected to survive.
Ahkivgak had been in the area for two or three hours, when the woman and man approached the book return kiosk to handle their library business. That’s when the attacker suddenly ran over and stabbed the woman.
It’s the kind of thing that happens on buses in Anchorage — a stabbing happened on a city bus about six weeks ago — and in other places where homeless mentally ill gather.
Listen as Assemblyman John Weddleton defends the rights of vagrants to occupy the library.
A description of Ahkivgak was aired over the police radio, and officers formed a perimeter near the library. They brought in a K-9, but did not track down the suspect immediately. Just before 5 pm, a swing shift officer saw a man matching Ahkivgak’s description walking near 36th Avenue and Cottonwood Street (Locarno Drive), and took the man into custody. He was identified as Ahkivgak.
The knife was said to be a small knife, like a Swiss Army knife, according to Must Read Alaska sources.
Then, while being transported to the police department for questioning, Ahkivgak slipped his handcuffs, from the back of his body.
The officer pulled his vehicle over, removed Ahkivgak, re-cuffed his hands behind him, and then placed hobbles onto Ahkivgak’s legs to keep him from slipping the cuffs again.
While Ahkivgak was sitting in the interview room at APD Headquarters, he flipped over the table, causing it to break. At the conclusion of the interview, Ahkivgak was remanded at the Anchorage Jail on the charges of Assault III, Violate Conditions of Release, Criminal Mischief IV (for the damage to the interview room), and Assault I.
Police said this was a random attack, as there was no indication that Ahkivgak and the victim knew one another. The motive for the attack is still under investigation.
In 2018, Ahkivgak was charged with felony assault for beating his mother with a frying pan after she told him to leave her house.
The current policies put in place by the most recent librarian for the Anchorage Library led to the unsafe conditions in the library, where the library has become a day shelter for seriously mentally ill people, drug addicts, and porn addicts. Under the past library leadership, it has become a social service agency, and day camp for homeless people. The past policies created Drag Queen Story Hour, and social services provided.
Although Mayor Dave Bronson has made it a priority to make the library safer, the leftist Assembly has bucked him at every turn in terms of putting safety first.
Amy Demboski, the municipal manager, said she is considering doing a safety stand-down to train staff in situational awareness and deescalation techniques with an expert. Demboski is currently in charge of the libraries, with Judy Eledge as her deputy library director, since the Anchorage Assembly refused to confirm either of Mayor Bronson’s library director choices. The Mayor’s Office is in the process of interviewing candidates for the position.
