A gunman robbing a Pearl City game room over the weekend grabbed a plastic bin holding a purse, which later served as a piece of evidence used to identify the suspects.
Five men were charged Sunday in connection with the robbery at Moon Hwa Video & Market, 803 Kamehameha Highway, at about 9:40 p.m. Friday.
Folauga Agatonu, 25, of Waianae was charged with first-degree robbery and two weapons offenses. His bail was set at $50,000. William Tolai, 19, Tamatoa Silva, 19, and Kilipo Taesali Jr., 21, all of Waipahu, were also charged with first-degree robbery. Bail for each was set at $20,000. All four remained at Oahu Community Correctional Center on Tuesday, unable to post bail.
The alleged getaway driver, Jeff Sila, 22, of Waipahu, was charged with driving without a license.
According to a police affidavit filed Monday in Honolulu District Court, a woman who was inside the business when the incident occurred told police she heard someone kicking in the metal front door, which was supposed to be locked. A large man with a small black handgun and a smaller man, also armed with a handgun, then entered the business, followed by two other men, she said.
The men pointed their guns at everyone in the game room, and one ordered customers to hand over their money and keep their heads down.
The large man told a female employee to give him money and assaulted her when she said she had none, the affidavit said.
When a woman outside screamed, the four men scrambled to leave the game room. Before fleeing, the large man reached under the employee’s desk and took a white plastic bin that held her purse.
After the men left, someone inside said, “That was Tony them,” according to a woman who was sitting at a video game when the robbers entered the room, the affidavit said.
A police officer saw the men several minutes later running up a ramp and jumping into a silver sedan parked at a nearby Chevron station. The officer noticed one of the men was carrying a small white basket.
Two minutes after the officer noticed the men, police dispatch reported a robbery at the business. The officer spotted the suspect vehicle entering the freeway and then pulled the driver over along the Ewa-bound lanes of the H-1 freeway near the Kunia offramp.
Officers found the plastic bin in the back seat of the sedan.
The woman whose purse had been stolen was brought to the scene, where she identified one of the men and the bin that had held her purse. Police then arrested all five men.
