PORT ANGELES — Two Port Angeles residents who had been charged in connection with the purse snatching and assault of an elderly woman were taken into custody Wednesday afternoon.
Alivia Laurente Konopaski, 21, and Orlando Jose Yslava, 28, were arrested shortly after 3 p.m. in the alcove of a business in the 700 block of Front Street, said Deputy Chief Jason Viada of the Port Angeles Police Department.
The police department and the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team (OPNET) worked together to find the two after arrest warrants of $100,000 each were issued Monday and Tuesday, Viada said.
A 79-year-old Port Angeles woman, Margerett Platt, was dragged across the parking lot at the Safeway at Lincoln and Third streets on Sunday morning as she tried to reclaim her stolen purse, police said.
She was treated at Olympic Medical Center for a cut on her head and pain in her back and legs before she was discharged.
The two arrested Wednesday were each charged in the warrants with accomplice to first-degree robbery and accomplice to second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.
The robbery charge carries a maximum term of life in prison; the assault charge, a maximum of 10 years.
According to store surveillance video, a man grabbed Platt’s purse from her shopping cart at about 11:05 a.m. Sunday.
She followed him as he ran outside and got into the Chrysler Pacifica minivan. She opened the passenger-side front door to grab at her purse, police said. The driver accelerated in reverse, knocking her to the ground and dragging her several feet before fleeing down East Third Street, according to the probable cause statement.
Witnesses said they saw Platt being pulled along the ground.
Platt said the purse contained a small amount of cash, credit cards and debit cards.
Konopaski had been released on her own recognizance on Dec. 6 on charges of second-degree organized retail theft and second-degree burglary, both Class B felonies, for allegedly stealing items from Walmart between Dec. 1 and Dec. 5, according to a probable cause statement. Her trial on those charges is set for Feb. 28.
Yslava has no criminal history. He had two anti-harassment orders filed against him by Konopaski in 2018.
Orlando J. Yslava, age 28, of Port Angeles
