A woman was seen being sexually assaulted in the parking lot of Anchorage City Hall late Wednesday morning, just another instance in the rapidly disintegrating public safety profile of the downtown core.
According to witnesses, the assault took place before 11:30 am in broad daylight. A passerby who witnessed the attack from her vehicle said she repeatedly honked her horn in an attempt to stop it, but several men walking nearby did not intervene in the crime. She also called 911 and said it took officers approximately seven minutes to arrive. Meanwhile, the man was penetrating the woman sexually without stopping, but occasionally glanced in the direction of the honking horn.
When police arrived, they pulled the man off the woman and placed him under arrest, the witness said. A photo provided to media shows officers pinning the man to the ground as the woman lay nearby.
The witness, who shared video evidence with police, said that after she was on hold with 911 for about 30 seconds, dispatchers asked her a series of questions about where she was and what the description of the perpetrator was, as she pleaded for them to send help.
Police were heard asking the woman whether she knew the suspect. The witness reported that the woman told them she “didn’t want this.”
After the suspect was taken into custody, the officers left the woman at the scene. The witness approached her and learned she was from Bristol Bay and had come to Anchorage for medical appointments but was staying on the streets. She appeared to be heavily intoxicated. Police later took her to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in the back of their squad car.
The attack comes as Anchorage struggles with ongoing issues related to vagrancy, drug abuse, public intoxication, and crime in the downtown area. Under Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s administration, the Anchorage Police Department has been restructuring its workforce, converting some sworn officer positions into unarmed “community safety officer” roles, and reducing law enforcement throughout the city in a stealth “defund the police” move.
This latest incident in one of the city’s most visible civic spaces — a parking lot between City Hall and the Dena’ina Convention Center — has raised alarm among residents about the level of disorder and safety downtown.
Police have not yet released the name of the suspect. The case number is 25-025468.
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