Prosecutors have charged two homeless men in separate alleged attacks against kupuna on Oahu.
Gabriel Fiaai, 31, appeared Monday at Honolulu District Court on a second-degree robbery charge involving a 73-year-old man. He is being held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center in lieu of $20,000 bail.
The alleged robbery occurred Saturday morning at a bus stop in the area of South Hotel Street near Longs Drugs in downtown Honolulu.
Police said a homeless man used physical force and took the victim’s container of ice cream at about 7:10 a.m. Emergency Medical Services personnel treated the victim, who sustained bruises to his head and arm.
Police arrested Fiaai on the 1000 block of Bishop Street on suspicion of robbery.
He has a criminal record of 11 misdemeanor convictions for assault, three misdemeanor convictions for sex assault and terroristic threatening, and two petty misdemeanor convictions for theft.
This is the third case this month where kupuna sustained injuries in an attack.
On Aug. 17 a 72-year-old woman sustained a laceration to her inner lip after a homeless man identified as Thomas M. Kunishima allegedly assaulted her in an unprovoked attack in Chinatown.
The woman had just exited a store on Maunakea Street when Kunishima allegedly punched her in the face at about 12:35 p.m.
Kunishima, also 72, was charged with second-degree assault and is being held at OCCC. His bail is set at $15,000.
Prosecutors charged him under a new law signed July 1 by Gov. David Ige that makes intentionally or knowingly causing bodily injury to a person age 60 or older a Class C felony. The crime carries penalties of up to five years in prison.
Kunishima has a criminal record of three petty misdemeanor convictions for criminal trespassing and urinating/defecating in a public place.
In a separate case, Jordan K. Wong, 37, was charged under the same new law as Kunishima after he allegedly shoved a 69-year-old woman off a sidewalk Aug. 7 in the Keeaumoku area.
Video surveillance shows a man violently shoving a woman as she walks on South Beretania Street fronting Wong’s Drapery at about 11:40 a.m. The footage shows the victim land on the ground on her back with her upper body over a curb.
Wong remains at OCCC pending his trial, scheduled to be held in October. His bail is set at $20,000.
