A Makakilo man said he doesn’t regret running after a would-be burglar who later tried to run over police officers pursuing him.
A 25-year-old suspect tried to flee police and drove several miles through West Oahu before being arrested at the H-1 freeway westbound Kunia onramp at about 8:54 a.m. Friday. He is being held pending charges of attempted murder, first-degree criminal property damage, reckless endangering, resisting an order to stop, resisting arrest and violating the terms of his probation.
Police said no one was injured.
Ron Amasol was at his Makakilo home getting ready for work Friday morning when he heard vertical blinds flapping in his bathroom. "At first I thought it was the wind," he said.
When he saw nothing there, he walked away to do something else. But then he heard another sound from the bathroom, this time what sounded like the popping off of a window screen, Amasol said.
He returned to find himself staring at a man on the other side of his window. "I yelled at him, ‘What are you doing?’"
Amasol said when the man took off, he chased after him while calling 911 on his telephone.
Amasol lost sight of the would-be burglar, who apparently ducked into a neighbor’s yard.
But according to police, officers spotted the suspect driving a stolen white sedan on nearby Hauone Street. When officers tried to stop him, he nearly ran over one officer who was on foot and clipped a police car with another officer inside. Neither officer was hurt.
A police helicopter in the area followed the suspect’s car as it made its way toward Nanakuli, police said. The car then turned around and headed town-bound on the H-1 freeway, police said. The car left the freeway at the Kunia eastbound offramp and tried to get back onto the freeway at the Kunia westbound onramp. That’s where the vehicle stopped and officers arrested the suspect, police said.
Amasol was among those who identified the suspect.
Jean Amasol, Ron’s wife, said officers told her the man is believed to be a suspect in two other burglaries in her neighborhood Friday morning.
She said she and their son, 7, normally would have been home when the burglar broke in, but they had gone shopping after dropping off two daughters at school.
Ron Amasol said he doesn’t know what the would-be robber would have done if he had chosen to simply shoo him away rather than chase after him.
"He might have broken into another house down my street," Ron Amasol said. "We all gotta watch out for each other, and don’t be afraid to do the right thing."
Jean Amasol also learned a lesson. She said she’s previously ignored her husband’s warnings to turn on the alarm, even when she and their three young children are home.
She has been lax about it, she said, "but I’ll be doing that all the time from now on."
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