A young man went on a violent spree in an Anchorage complex for seniors. An 88-year-old fought him off.

Stanley Sienda, 88, had simply returned from his customary every day jog one afternoon in late April when he heard somebody pounding on the door of his residence in Chugach View, a Fairview public housing complicated for seniors.

“I open the door,” mentioned Sienda. “And someone grabbed me and bit me on the neck.”

He discovered himself grappling on the ground with a stranger, a far youthful man who was biting and kicking him with heavy footwear.

“I knew this particular person was actual harmful,” Sienda mentioned this week, a wiry elder in an Alaskan Brewing Co. sweatshirt and sweatpants. “I might really feel his tooth on my eyebrow, my head, the whole lot.”

After what appeared to Sienda like a protracted whereas, he was capable of break away from the assailant and scramble into the hallway.

By the point police arrested Justin Koonuk, 24, he’d assaulted 4 totally different individuals within the senior flats. Sienda was the final one.

Koonuk is now charged with assault within the case. He additionally has an open assault cost from March, stemming from an incident the place a police officer noticed him punch a person within the face on a sidewalk in Midtown.

The charging doc within the April assaults says Koonuk went to the Chugach View flats to drink within the room of a resident. In some unspecified time in the future, this went badly and Koonuk allegedly grabbed a cane from his host and assaulted her with it, together with one other man within the residence. They had been capable of push him into the hallway, however Koonuk continued his tear by way of the constructing, placing one other man who opened his door earlier than going upstairs and banging on Sienda’s door.

Sienda was the worst injured: He has damaged ribs and deep bruises, and weeks later lacerations stay on his head and neck. As a result of the bites broke pores and skin, he might want to bear testing for blood-transmitted illness. Images taken of his residence after the assault present streaks of blood and even a cooking pan bent within the battle.

Born in Connecticut, Sienda rambled across the nation engaged on boats in Louisiana and as a machinist earlier than driving a van to Alaska greater than 20 years in the past to settle. As he entered his 80s, he nonetheless took yearly summer time journeys to backpack round Europe through a Eurorail move. He says he runs day-after-day on the Chester Creek path, typically all the way in which to Lake Otis. However a stranger bursting violently into his personal residence?

“I’m not a scaredy man,” he mentioned. “However I knew he was making an attempt to kill me.”

The rampage has left the aged residents of one in all Anchorage’s largest public housing amenities on edge. One other resident began a petition to administration elevating issues about security, and 50 or 60 individuals have signed thus far, residents say.

Mary Wolcoff is a receptionist on the Anchorage Senior Middle, a separate day heart the place many Chugach View and Chugach Manor residents spend time. She describes herself as a longtime pal and advocate for Sienda.

Wolcoff says safety isn’t ok at Chugach View. Whereas residents have keycard entry and doorways are locked robotically, there are simply too many entrances, and ample alternatives for individuals to slide in unnoticed behind residents.

“There’s like 4 or 5 younger males who are available in there and smoke marijuana within the laundry room,” Wolcoff mentioned. “They dare the residents to confront them. And you understand, the residents are too afraid to confront them.” (Constructing administration says they reviewed video from a whole lot of cameras and haven’t discovered proof of individuals sneaking in to smoke within the laundry room.)

Sienda mentioned somebody tore a telephone off the wall, and ripped away a coin machine. Within the mornings, he has discovered teams of individuals sleeping on the entryway of the constructing. The issues appear to have constructed over the past two years, when Sullivan Area turned a mass-care shelter.

The flats are owned and operated by Alaska Housing Finance Corp., a pseudo-governmental company that makes use of federal HUD funding.

Cathy Stone, the director of public housing for the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., says Chugach View is safe. The person who assaulted 4 seniors was invited into the constructing, she mentioned — he didn’t sneak in.

“We don’t actually mandate what visitors (residents) can or can not have. That’s their alternative,” she mentioned. “We don’t management that. However we do warning folks that it might jeopardize their housing.”

Low-income seniors pay 28% of their earnings for a one-bedroom residence at Chugach View or Chugach Manor. The waitlist is formidable: Some 827 individuals are ready for a spot.

The flats have full-time property managers, upkeep workers and an individual whose sole job is to cope with resident issues, she mentioned.

“Security and safety is vital to us, for all our residents,” she mentioned. “And yeah, we take it severely. We reply rapidly and handle these issues. And this will likely be managed.”

Again in 2007, residents and police raised issues about drug dealing, theft, harassments, weapons and even sexual assault inside the flats, in line with Every day Information reporting from the time.

“I don’t often exit of my residence until we have now bingo,” one resident advised the newspaper.

On the time, it was attributed to a drop within the variety of seniors being allowed to reside within the flats. In the present day, the common age is 68.

Wolcott, the receptionist who’s a pal of Sienda’s, mentioned the rise in prison exercise across the public housing is worrisome for the weak individuals who reside there. She sees teams of a lot youthful males who hand around in the areas because the culprits.

“I want they might have a look at their grandparents and say, ‘I wouldn’t wish to do that to my grandparent,’” she mentioned.

Koonuk couldn’t be reached for this story. Court docket information present his bail was set at $2,500 however he stays on the Anchorage jail. Sienda says he’ll be at each court docket look.

• • •