In the early morning hours after Valentine's Day, the Dillingham Police Department responded to a report in which a witness claimed to have seen an incident of domestic assault. What followed involved a forced entry, an escape leading to a brief police chase, and several body-sized holes in the ceiling.
At 12:36 a.m., the Dillingham Police Department arrived that the Woodriver apartment complex in Dillingham with the intention of investigating a domestic assault report. When the police knocked on the door of the apartment in question, the suspect inside refused to open the door for the officers, leaving no choice but for the officers to obtain a key from the landlord. However, the suspect again tried to thwart the officers' attempt to enter the apartment by blocking the door with his body and preventing the doorknob form turning.
"When officers arrived at the Woodriver apartments, they talked to a witness that claimed that they had seen the suspect assaulting his wife," said Dillingham Police Chief Dan Pasquariello. "The officers made attempts to enter the apartment to check on the welfare of the victim, but found that the door was being blocked from the other side by the suspect."
The police eventually forced their way inside of the apartment and upon searching the residence, found the suspect, John Einhellig, 27, hiding in the attic of the apartment. The police were told that he had fled to hide in the attic by Einhellig's wife.
Officer Rodney Etheridge pursued Einhellig into the attic, but after entering the small enclosure, found himself falling through the ceiling and into a neighboring apartment. Einhellig then broke through the ceiling himself and fled out of the apartment and down the street.
Etheridge suffered a minor injury to his knee as a result of falling through the ceiling.
"When the officer was pursuing him into the attic, his feet fell through the sheet-rock floor of the attic and through the ceiling below," said Pasquariello. "After trying to free himself from the foothold in the attic floor with his feet dangling from the ceiling, he ended up breaking through the ceiling and fell into the neighboring apartment while straddling a ceiling beam. At this time Einhellig attempted to find the access door from the attic from the neighboring apartment and when failing to do so, made his own hole in the ceiling, fell through it, and ran out the door."
The police caught up with Einhellig more than 15 hours later after an arrest warrant had been obtained. An extensive search of the surrounding areas proved to be unnecessary, as Einhellig was arrested when he returned to his own apartment later that afternoon. Einhellig was charged with assault in the fourth degree, resisting arrest, criminal mischief and escape in the second degree. He was held at the Dillingham jail on $2,500 bail.
According to Pasquariello, both Einhellig and Etheridge are currently in good condition after their series of ups and downs through the apartment complex. The issue of the damage to the building will have to be resolved later when the case goes to court. As it stands now, the Woodriver apartments have a few new body-sized holes that need to be patched up
"I don't really know what the situation is with the damage or who is paying for it," said Pasquariello.
This story first appeared in The Bristol Bay Times/Dutch Harbor Fisherman and is republished here with permission.