Three individuals have been charged in connection with a pair of armed robberies that occurred Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning in Anchorage.
The successful arrest of the suspects was due to assistance by observant citizens, according to a statement from the Anchorage Police Department.
At around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, police responded to the report of an armed robbery at the Value Liquor store, located at 601 W. Dimond Blvd. Two male adults entered the store and held a clerk at gunpoint while demanding money from the cash drawer before fleeing the scene, police say.
“An arriving customer saw the suspects exit the liquor store and enter a red vehicle before driving away,” APD says. “The customer was then able to provide this information to police.”
Hours after the first robbery, just before 2 a.m., APD received another report of an armed robbery. Police responded to the Chevron, located at 415 Muldoon Rd. Dispatch advised the responding officers that a Checker Cab driver watched the suspects get into a red car before driving off. The cab driver followed the vehicle and provided police with both the license plate and a sense of where the vehicle was headed. Police used that information to find the abandoned suspect vehicle near the intersection of 10th Avenue and Cherry Street.
There, they began tracking the suspects on-foot, with the help of other officers. They located two male suspects miles into the woods, APD says. Other officers apprehended the third suspect, a female, nearby.
All three have been charged in connection with the robberies. Damon Nuipok, 19, has been charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of misconduct involving a weapon. Jovante McCord, 19, has been charged with two counts of first-degree robbery and two counts of tampering with evidence. The third suspect, 17, has been charged with two counts of first-degree robbery.