An Anchorage man found incompetent to stand trial for assault was released, then randomly stabbed a woman at the library, charges say

An Anchorage man who was released from custody last month when he was declared incompetent to stand trial on assault charges stabbed a woman this week at random in the Loussac Library, seriously injuring her, police said.

On Monday, the woman was in a hospital intensive care unit. “She has lost feeling in some of her extremities, and the injury is to her spinal cord,” Assistant District Attorney Dan Shorey wrote in new assault charges filed against Corey Ahkivgak after Sunday’s stabbing.

The attack at the library happened just over a month after Ahkivgak was released from custody: In January, he had been deemed incompetent to stand trial on felony charges that described similar bursts of random violence directed at women he did not know.

On Sunday, the woman at the Loussac Library had been standing at an indoor book drop with her boyfriend, their backs toward the lobby area, when Ahkivgak walked up behind them, Shorey wrote in the charges. In surveillance footage, the charges said Ahkivgak could be seen stabbing her in the middle of the back and then running out the south doorway.

A security guard chased him but returned shortly afterward to help the woman, Shorey wrote. Police were called just before 3:30 p.m. and found the woman with a multitool blade in her back, the charges said. The tool had a 3- to 4-inch serrated blade, according to the charges.

Police said they formed a perimeter and used a police dog to search for Ahkivgak but weren’t able to find him. Just before 5 p.m., the statement said, an officer saw a man who matched Ahkivgak’s description walking near East 36th Avenue and Cottonwood Street, about a mile from the library.

He was taken into custody and taken to police headquarters for questioning, the department wrote. During the interview, Ahkivgak flipped a table and broke it, police said.

The victim was taken to Providence Alaska Medical Center. She did not know Ahkivgak and it’s not clear why he attacked her, police said in an online statement.

In December, Ahkivgak was arrested on assault charges that detailed random acts of violence targeting women.

On Dec. 6, he hit a woman from behind with a backpack in the Midtown Walmart parking lot, knocking her to the ground, according to charges signed by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Stinson.

He left the area and began shouting derogatory words at a woman who was walking on the Benson Boulevard sidewalk near Walmart, according to the charges. Then Ahkivgak began punching her, trying to hit her in the face, the charges said. Eventually he stopped and continued walking.

After he was arrested on those charges, Ahkivgak underwent a competency evaluation that determined he was incompetent to stand trial. The charges against him were then dismissed and Ahkivgak was released from custody on Jan. 6.

Ahkivgak encountered police again three days before the stabbing at the library. Charges from that incident were forwarded to municipal prosecutors, but he was not arrested at that time.

Ahkivgak was charged with first-degree assault, criminal mischief and violating conditions of release related to the stabbing. He is being held at the Anchorage Correctional Center on $10,000 bail and is scheduled for a competency hearing next week.