A 19-year-old woman says a 22-year-old man already awaiting trial for allegedly assaulting a city bus driver in January threatened to shoot a teenager he held hostage last week unless she drove him out of Kalihi, according to court documents.
Sunia Faaofonuu has been charged with two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, kidnapping, first-degree theft, second-degree assault and extortion using a firearm and three firearm violations. His bail was set at $150,000.
Police said Faaofonuu, armed with a silver and black Ruger semiautomatic pistol, approached a 16-year-old boy at a house on Kealoha Place just before 3 p.m. Feb. 11.
While pointing the handgun at the teen, Faaofonuu asked Aileen Baay whether she owned the car that was parked outside a nearby house.
According to a police affidavit filed in Honolulu District Court earlier this week, Faaofonuu then told Baay, "You can take me out of Kalihi, or I going to shoot him right now."
Fearing for her life, Baay told police she closed the door and called authorities.
Faaofonuu then allegedly grabbed the teen and ordered him to climb the fence from Kealoha Place to Kalihi Waena Elementary School.
The two walked toward Kuhio Park Terrace and approached another man with a van, and Faaofonuu allegedly pointed the gun at the van’s driver and released the teen, police said. He then fled to Kalama Road by climbing a fence, police said.
Officers arrested Faaofonuu shortly afterward on Kamehameha IV Road.
A witness told police that Faaofonuu approached him in the driveway of a Kamehameha IV Road home, offering him the gun in exchange for a ride to Salt Lake.
When officers arrived, Faaofonuu hid the handgun, wrapped in a black cloth, in the engine compartment of a nearby parked car, where police found it, the court documents said.
Police determined that the handgun was stolen in a burglary.
Faaofonuu was free on bail after posting $2,000 bond after he allegedly assaulted a city bus driver Jan. 14 in Kahala. The bus was stopped and picking up passengers when a man entered the vehicle and allegedly assaulted the driver, police said. A bus rider intervened and called police.
Faaofonuu’s District Court trial on a charge of third-degree assault on the bus driver was set to begin March 6.
