Earlier we reported that an Alaskan sex offender won a $500,000 lottery sponsored by a rape support group. Police are now saying that the sex offender was attacked on a downtown Anchorage street with a tire iron or metal pipe. From The Guardian:
Police say Alec Ahsoak, 53, was attacked when a man approached him to ask if he was the man who won the $500,000 (£343,000) jackpot.
Whether the attack was motivated by Ahsoak's winning the lottery or the widely distributed reports that he is a three-time convicted sex offender was unclear.
"There was no apparent attempt at robbery," police lieutenant Dave Parker said. "He was struck eight to 10 times, and then he threw his Pepsi at the assailant and he ran for Phyllis' Cafe and the assailant ran off."
By yesterday evening, Ahsoak had been discharged from the hospital and police had taken a man and a woman into custody, Parker said. The man was being questioned by police and had not yet been charged with a crime, he said.
Ahsoak told officers he had been stopped by a white man believed to be about 21 and wearing a blue-and-white checked shirt, blue jeans and a white baseball cap as he entered the a local mall. The stranger asked if he was the lottery winner, Ahsoak said he was, and then went into the mall.
When he walked out minutes later carrying a Pepsi, the man approached him and began hitting him on the head with the weapon, police said.
Ahsoak was transported to a local hospital to be treated for his injuries, which did not appear to be life-threatening, police said.
Ahsoak was convicted in 1993 of molesting two girls under the age of 13. He was sentenced to four years in prison, according to court records.
In March 2000, police arrested him again for molesting a different young girl he was baby-sitting. Through a plea bargain, Ahsoak was sentenced to six years in prison on a single count of sexual abuse of a minor.
Prosecutors in that case dropped another sex abuse charge and a charge of failing to register as a sex offender.
Update: Thanks to SexOffenderIssues in the comments for further information on the case. For tracking of sex offender vigilantism in general, you should also go here.
My Blog:
http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com
Person Responsible Has Been Arrested:
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=9677301
Posted by: SexOffenderIssues | January 15, 2009 at 01:44 AM