Anchorage police officers were unable to secure the cooperation of a motorist involved in a standoff Wednesday night, so they decided to clear the scene and let him leave, according to a police spokeswoman.
The suspect, 29-year-old Joseph Szajkowski, was also involved in a SWAT standoff on Sept. 22, said Jennifer Castro of the Anchorage Police Department. That incident had police evacuating homes in a South Anchorage neighborhood as it stretched for 12 hours.
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This newest run-in with police began Wednesday night just after 6 p.m., when a caller reported to police that a suspicious vehicle with a man in its driver’s seat had been sitting in a parking lot near the 3900 block of West 86th Avenue, in the Jewel Lake area, for “several hours,” police said.
When officers responded to the spot, Szajkowski drove off heading east on Dimond Boulevard until he reached the southbound Minnesota Drive Expressway on-ramp. Szajkowski was pulled over on the ramp, police said.
“The driver would not comply with officer instructions or follow any police commands,” Castro said in a written statement. “Officers observed a gun in the vehicle and additional officers were dispatched to assist.”
Negotiators responded to the scene and tried to get Szajkowski out of his vehicle, but he stayed put, police said. The standoff lasted more than three hours, and during this time, police learned of Szajkowski’s other recent deadlock with APD.
Around 10 p.m., police decided to “deescalate the situation and clear the scene,” Castro said. Despite a magistrate judge granting an arrest warrant for Szajkowski during the standoff, APD decided not to take him into custody at the scene. The warrant was based on a misdemeanor charge of disobeying a police officer’s order.
“(W)e did not want to escalate the situation and potentially create a greater safety risk,” she said.
