A man waiting for TheBus along a Kalihi sidewalk before sunrise last month was approached, physically attacked, and robbed by a stranger who then fled on foot with his property. Nearly two weeks later, the suspect remains unidentified, and Honolulu police are now asking the public to help track him down.
According to an official bulletin from the Honolulu Police Department, the robbery happened on July 31 at approximately 5:20 a.m. while the victim stood on a public sidewalk waiting for an Oahu Transit Services bus. The case has been assigned bulletin reference CID-26/0938 and handed to HPD’s Criminal Investigation Division. As reported by Hawaii News Now, the suspect approached the victim, made verbal demands, and then attacked him before running off with his belongings.
Police released surveillance video Tuesday that shows the suspect putting his arm around the victim just before the attack began, according to the same HPD bulletin. Officers describe the suspect as an unknown male in his 20s with a short, husky build, a mustache, and a rat-tail hairstyle, who was wearing a black t-shirt and black shorts at the time. Anyone who recognizes him is being asked to contact police or CrimeStoppers.
A Pattern of Early-Morning Robberies in the Neighborhood
The bus stop mugging is not an isolated case for the neighborhood. One week earlier, on July 24, HPD responded to another early-morning robbery in Kalihi when a 56-year-old man was threatened at knifepoint inside his parked car around 6 a.m.; that case led to the arrest of a 29-year-old suspect on a first-degree robbery charge, per the same HPD account — a case Hoodline covered in Kalihi Man Confronts Knife-Wielding Car Thief. Just days before that, prosecutors had charged a 36-year-old man with first-degree robbery and vehicle theft after he allegedly brandished a handgun and demanded property at a Kalihi convenience store, according to KITV, in an incident Hoodline also reported as Armed Robbery At Kalihi Convenience Store…