An Oahu grand jury Monday indicted a 41-year-old career criminal for first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer for allegedly choking a police officer and trying to take the officer’s handgun last week.

Caleb Iuli, whose criminal record spans 21 years, was arrested Nov. 17 after an officer on patrol spotted two men, one with a “black beanie” pulled over his face, walking toward an Aloha Island Mini Mart on King Street, according to a police affidavit filed Thursday in Honolulu District Court.

Police had been searching for two suspects in an armed robbery that occurred a day earlier at a convenience store gas station, where one man pulled a gun on a 30-year-old female clerk and demanded money. The robbery had occurred at 3:36 a.m. Nov. 16 at the Aloha Island Mini Mart near Houghtailing and North School streets.

On Nov. 17 at 12:19 a.m., officer Alexander Watson approached the two men walking toward the King Street convenience store, and the man wearing the black beanie covering his eyes and nose stopped and raised his hands in the air, but the second man ran, according to the affidavit filed by officer Chester Desidero, who assisted in the arrest.

Police said Watson caught the suspect, whom they identified as Iuli, trying to climb a fence to escape.

According to the police affidavit, Iuli allegedly punched Watson several times in the face, head and body. Iuli managed to get behind Watson and put his arm around the officer’s neck and was choking him, according to the affidavit.

While choking Watson with one arm, Iuli was trying to pull the officer’s handgun from the holster with his free hand, the affidavit said.

Watson was able to free himself and held Iuli until other officers assisted.

Watson, who has been a police officer since 2013, was treated at Kuakini Hospital for elbow, knuckle, right forearm and knee injuries.

Iuli was arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, with bail set at $50,000.

He also faces drug charges after Desidero found a glass pipe commonly used to smoke crystal methamphetamine in Iuli’s waistband during the arrest.

According to the police affidavit, Iuli also allegedly ditched nine small zip-close plastic bags — eight containing crystal meth — a red straw and a broken glass pipe on the floor in the back of the police cruiser that was taking him to the Kalihi police substation to be booked.

Iuli’s criminal conviction record includes seven felonies for car theft, drug possession and robbery, according to the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center.