Man shot by police near Midtown spa was out on bail for prior armed robbery

An Anchorage man shot by police last week as he fled an armed robbery in Midtown was wearing an ankle monitor for a prior charge that he robbed a Spenard restaurant at gunpoint last year, according to police and court records.

Police arrested Michael Krischuk, 34, on a charge of armed robbery in the Jan. 7 incident, which unfolded on a weekday afternoon in a busy part of Midtown near a strip mall and a school.

Krischuk remains hospitalized but is expected to recover, Anchorage Police Department Capt. Amanda Fisher said at a media briefing held Wednesday at department headquarters.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Anchorage Superior Court, a business owner in a strip mall on Northern Lights Boulevard called 911 on the afternoon of Jan. 7 to say a woman had come into the business “with masking tape on her face and hands.”

The woman told police a man later identified as Krischuk came into her business, Day Break Spa, asking for a massage, police Det. Brendan Lee wrote in a sworn affidavit filed with the armed robbery charge.

He became angry after she told him it would cost $60 up front, taped her mouth and hands, and demanded she stay in the massage room, the affidavit said. She told police the man had a handgun, it said.

The woman told police she could hear the man trying to rob an ATM machine in the business, the affidavit said. After about 20 minutes, she ran to a nearby market where an employee made the 911 call, it said.

The woman working in the spa did not appear to be injured, Fisher said at Wednesday’s briefing.

Police arriving at the scene saw Krischuk in an alley, but he fled on foot, according to the affidavit.

“During the foot chase Krischuk displayed a pistol and didn’t put it down when ordered to do so by police,” Lee wrote. An officer shot Krischuk at least twice, the affidavit said.

Fisher, who runs the department’s detective division, said at the briefing that the shooting was captured by body-worn cameras, though the footage has not yet been released. A state Office of Special Prosecutions investigation into the shooting is ongoing, according to police.

At the time of last week’s robbery, Krischuk was wearing an ankle monitor following a separate robbery charge, Fisher said.

“Unfortunately, that happens on occasion,” she said. “I wish that we could prevent the actions from taking place based on the fact that he was on an ankle monitor. There’s only so much space in the jails to keep people.”

In March 2024, Krischuk was charged with robbery, assault, theft and violating conditions of release. Prosecutors say Krischuk robbed Jinmi Restaurant in Spenard at gunpoint, stealing $70 in cash and the owner’s $800 phone, according to a criminal complaint filed in that case. Krischuk ran from the scene and was later apprehended, according to the complaint.

He was released on $2,000 bail in that case in October.

Krischuk was the first person to be shot by police in 2025. The next day, police shot Trevor Stefano, who charges filed in the case say had just opened fire at her former employer, an Anchorage attorney.

Anchorage police shot eight people last year, five fatally.