In the early morning hours on Sunday, two Cordova locals had a hand in catching the man police believe is responsible for a vehicle theft and a slew of property damage along Cordova’s First Street.
Kevin Chung, whose family owns and runs OK Restaurant, told The Cordova Times he was returning home from watching a friend play music at the Alaskan Hotel and Bar on Sunday morning when he encountered a man in the alley behind Laura’s Liquor, which belongs to Will Osborne and his wife Alexis.
Chung said he did not recognize the young man handling a four wheeler in the garage, and immediately became suspicious when the man asked for his help to start it. Chung said he told the man to leave before walking upstairs to his mother’s apartment.
While he was upstairs, Chung said the man began rifling through various entryways and vehicles near the alley, entering both his SUV and Osborne’s garage — where he eventually found a child’s scooter and car battery that he used to damage Osborne’s truck parked nearby. Seeing the increasingly violent scene, Chung said his mother, Grace, called both Osborne and the Cordova Police Department.
Chung said he decided he needed to confront the suspect before more damage occurred.
“I just didn’t want him to run away and cause more trouble in other places,” Chung said of the encounter.
When Chung returned to the alley and tried to stop the suspect by physically blocking his way, he said the man tried to force his way past him.
“That’s when I grabbed him and started wrestling with him,” Chung said. “I didn’t want to hurt him … I just held him as much as I could to the ground.”
Chung said he did not recognize the man, but took notice of his Salmon Jam wristband.
A little while later Osborne arrived to help Chung subdue the suspect, who didn’t go down without a fight, they said. According to the pair, the suspect gave Osborne a broken rib and Chung a bloody nose.
Eventually, Cordova police were able to arrive at the scene and detain the suspect.
Police Chief Andrew Goss confirmed with The Cordova Times that the locals were able to detain the man, and expressed his gratitude for their efforts.
“We’re thankful that they’re OK and that they were able to apprehend the suspect,” Goss said.
In a Facebook post Sunday, the Cordova Police Department announced there had been an auto theft that resulted in property damage to Nichols’ Front Door store on First Street, as well as an arrest made for a burglary at a First Street residence.
“The Cordova Police Department believes the two crimes are connected,” the post says.
Goss told The Cordova Times on Wednesday that police still believe the suspect who was apprehended by Chung and Osborne was also responsible for this week’s property damage along First Street. Goss declined to identify the suspect by name.
Jack Jeppson, the assistant manager at Nichols’, said the store’s security camera footage showed a person in a car driving into the building 4 a.m. on Sunday.
“All you could see on the video was headlights. When he pulled away we saw that it was a truck,” he said.
Nichols’ staff wasn’t aware of the damage until an employee arrived for the opening shift several hours later and saw the broken window. Jeppson says the incident didn’t affect operation and the store remained open during normal hours, while temporary repairs were made later that day.
