By JAMES HALPIN
Anchorage Daily News

A ruckus at the Black Angus Inn on Gambell Street ended with the hotel flooded, a man under arrest for assault and firefighters who were trying to control the sprinkler system mooned by an unruly guest.

The bare-bottomed woman also ended up in jail after refusing to leave the crew alone, according to police.

"She was drunk and obnoxious, getting in the way of the firefighters," police spokeswoman Anita Shell said. "She was mooning the firefighters, asking to see their penises."

Police say it all began when a drunken John Lomack, 22, walked up behind a man in the parking lot of the Crossroads Lounge next door to the inn Wednesday night and struck him four or five times in the back of the head, apparently without provocation. Hymie Castro, 60, fell to the ground but followed Lomack back to his room at the hotel, Shell said.

In the lobby, front desk clerk Antonio Fajardo said he saw Lomack, who had checked in just an hour earlier, come in arguing with the other man on the way toward Lomack's room. Inside 15 minutes, he heard a loud bang and went upstairs to find the men in the hallway, mouths bloodied. Then he opened the door to Lomack's room.

"Oh, it's a burst, man -- bang!" Fajardo said. "And black water is coming -- holy! When I open the door, already there was two or three inches of water pouring out. In probably three minutes our laundry room got 3 inches of water on the floor."

Fajardo called 911 as a hotel security guard detained Lomack, he said. Shell said it appeared Lomack, fresh out of jail on a drug charge a day earlier, had looped a sweatshirt or towel over the ceiling-mounted pipe, put his weight on it and snapped it.

Officers and firefighters responding to the fracas at about 7:40 p.m. found the hotel flooding fast. But their attention was soon diverted to the direction of Albina Chikoyak, 38, who came out of a room to greet them.

Fire department spokeswoman Jen Collins said instead of complying with the woman's requests, firefighters brought Chikoyak's "lewd suggestions" to the attention of a nearby police officer.

"It's not something I hear about very often," Collins said. "She was certainly causing some disruptions."

Already wanted on an out-of-town warrant, Chikoyak was arrested for disorderly conduct, Shell said.

The flood damaged several upstairs rooms and water seeping through the ceiling caused a lake at least 4 inches deep in parts of the first floor, according to police, who estimated damage to the hotel at $30,000. Fajardo said the fire system was soon restored, but several rooms still need to be cleaned and dried.

When questioned by police, Lomack denied initiating the altercation, saying he was defending himself and that he learned to do so in jail, Shell said. He was arrested on charges of fourth-degree assault and third-degree criminal mischief -- a felony -- and booked at the Anchorage jail with bail set at $6,500, she said.

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