The year-long manhunt for a fugitive wanted on more than a dozen state and federal charges ended last night when authorities arrested him in a Los Angeles apartment, according to Anchorage police.
Police following a tip caught up with Jordan Jerome Shanholtzer, 20, in the Hawthorne neighborhood apartment about 7:30 p.m. as he was "dancing around" because his basketball team had won a game, Anchorage police Lt. Paul Honeman said.
"The FBI has him. They've already pulled him from the Hawthorne jail," Honeman said.
Shanholtzer is wanted on a litany of felony and misdemeanor state charges including multiple assaults, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, misconduct involving weapons and escape since he was released on bail after an attack in the Outback Steakhouse in May 2007.
Police say Shanholtzer and two others strutted into the Midtown restaurant that evening and began beating a recent high school graduate as he was eating with his family.
But Honeman, in uniform, was also eating there and rushed into the melee. Accompanied by three Fort Richardson soldiers, Honeman wrangled Shanholtzer to the ground and cuffed him.
Another suspect, Jarre Lee, was arrested as he tried to flee the scene with a handgun and 20 grams of crack cocaine, Honeman said.
Shanholtzer was booked into the Anchorage jail, but shortly after making bail he skipped town. Meanwhile, an indictment handed down last July charged him with three federal counts of distributing crack-cocaine and added to the felony charges he is facing.
He still needs to be arraigned on the federal charges, so he will likely make an appearance in a Los Angeles federal court before he is sent to Alaska for the trials, Honeman said. It was uncertain when exactly that might happen, but extradition would not be an issue because the charges are federal, he said.
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
By JAMES HALPIN
jhalpin@adn.com