A four-man stickup crew has been indicted after a string of gunpoint robberies earlier this year in northeast Anchorage, prosecutors say.
Wearing black masks and white gloves, the group held shotguns inches from the face of a Mountain View cigarette shop owner during a holdup in January, police say.
The men are accused of blasting a shotgun round through the window of a Bragaw Street convenience store during a March robbery and robbing a cabbie and his passenger in April.
An Anchorage grand jury on Wednesday indicted:
• Aaron Aasa, 26.
• Ronald E. Thompson Jr., 18.
• Brothers Eric Vaifanua, 18, and Faamanu "Junior" Vaifanua, 21.
Assistant district attorney James Fayette outlined the accusations Friday in a prosecution filing.
The four are charged with robbing a cigarette shop called Smoke King in Mountain View on Jan. 20, holding the shopkeeper and his son at gunpoint, prosecutors say.
Two months later, three of the men robbed the Mini Stop convenience store on Bragaw Street, prosecutors say.
A break in the robbery investigations came April 10, after the cab driver robbery.
The early morning holdup came on North Bunn Street, where the taxi driver's passenger was trying to pay his fare, prosecutors say. A man with a shotgun had approached the passenger. Another man, carrying a handgun, walked up to the driver and demanded cash, prosecutors say.
As the men fled, one fired several shots in the air, prosecutors say. Someone nearby called police to report the shots. The witness saw a black SUV speeding away, prosecutors say.
Police soon found the black Ford sitting in a car wash in west Mountain View. In a nearby trash can, police found a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun, a handgun and white surgical gloves.
Security cameras showed the men pulling the pistol-grip shotgun from the SUV and stashing it in the trash can, prosecutors say.
In the SUV, police found old cartons of Kool cigarettes, the same brand that robbers stole from the Mountain View smoke shop and the Bragaw convenience store, prosecutors say.
Among other evidence linking the men to the robberies, police say Faamanu Vaifanua was wearing white tennis shoes that matched footprints left in the snow outside the Smoke King store.
The four are accused of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and evidence tampering.
Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334 or email khopkins@adn.com.
By KYLE HOPKINS
khopkins@adn.com