Crime & Courts

Anchorage driver hit and seriously injured pedestrian downtown, then drove away, charges say

A woman was arrested and charged in what police say was a hit-and-run collision early Saturday that left a pedestrian unconscious in a downtown Anchorage street. The victim, a 32-year-old man, was hospitalized with serious injuries, police said.

Ariel Taylor Maskrey, 28, was charged with first-degree assault, driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident, according to court records.

Anchorage police responded around 2:40 a.m. to a report of a hit-and-run with injuries in the area of 4th Avenue and H Street, according to a summary shared by police online. A 32-year-old man was found unconscious in the street, police said.

Fire department medics took the man to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said. By later in the morning, the injuries were no longer considered life-threatening, police said.

A witness told police they saw a sedan driven by a woman strike the man in the street as she drove north on H Street between 3rd and 4th avenues, according to the charges. The driver backed up, continued north, then turned east on 3rd Avenue, the charges say. Police found what they believed to be a grill from the vehicle in the area, according to the charges.

Several men who police say saw the incident moved the man out of the street and provided assistance, the charges said. In the hospital, the man was unconscious, on a ventilator, and his injuries included a fractured skull, charges said.

The car was disabled and abandoned shortly after the collision in the area of Arctic and Northern Lights boulevards, charges said.

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Using traffic camera footage, officers identified the vehicle and its owner, charges said. The car’s owner told officers his girlfriend had been driving the car, according to the charges. She was at his residence, the charges said. The images from the camera footage matched Maskrey’s appearance, and she was seen getting out of the car’s driver seat, charges said.

Maskrey’s blood-alcohol was .181, the charges said, more than two times the legal limit for driving in Alaska. She was arrested and, after an initial court appearance over the weekend, was placed under house arrest while her case proceeds, according to court documents.

[’Fatally flawed’: What this year’s 13 pedestrian deaths tell us about Anchorage’s roads]

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