Police have charged a 27-year-old Puna man with several offenses stemming from a weekend crime spree in Hawaiian Paradise Park.
Police have charged a 27-year-old Puna man with several offenses stemming from a weekend crime spree in Hawaiian Paradise Park.
At 8:05 p.m. Saturday, officers arrested Phillip Jon Richardson, who has no permanent address, at an 18th Avenue home.
A 28-year-old woman reported that as she was dropping off a relative at the home, the suspect opened her car door, identified himself as a police officer and demanded her car keys. The woman said he grabbed her and forcibly attempted to pull her out car. During the confrontation, another relative who was a passenger in in the same car tried to use his cell phone to call 911, but the suspect took the 76-year-old man’s phone before he could complete the call.
The woman managed to call an acquaintance on her cell phone to ask for help. When the acquaintance, a 29-year-old man arrived, the suspect then tried to enter the man’s vehicle. When he was unable to do so, the suspect reached into the vehicle, grabbed the victim’s arm and tried to open the door. The suspect then reportedly left the scene in a pickup truck.
A short time later, police received a report of a pickup truck ramming into a house on 17th Avenue, causing damage to the wooden structure. A 36-year-old woman resident told police that the driver got out of the truck and entered her house through a window. As police arrived, the pickup truck fled the scene. The suspect abandoned the truck and fled on foot into the bushes. The victim discovered that a safe had been stolen from the house and items had been stolen from a parked vehicle on the property.
A 63-year-old man who lives on 1st Avenue also reported that a pickup truck pulled into his property and the male suspect invaded the man’s home, stole a computer and fled.
No one was seriously injured during these crimes.
Detectives charged Richardson on Monday evening with two counts each of burglary and attempted robbery, plus phone ripping, impersonating a law enforcement officer, unauthorized entry to a motor vehicle, property damage and resisting an order to stop. Richardson’s bail was set at $83,000, and his initial court appearance was Tuesday.