POLICE BEAT
Man charged with taking van
Advertiser Staff
An 18-year-old man accused of attacking a woman and then stealing her van was charged yesterday with robbery and kidnapping.
Francis Ifenuk of North Kukui Street was charged with three counts of kidnapping and one count of second-degree robbery. He was being held last night in lieu of $300,000 bail.
Ifenuk is charged with punching and choking a 30-year-old woman who was delivering newspapers early Thursday morning in Waikiki. Police allege that Ifenuk then jumped in the woman's van and drove off with the woman's three daughters, ages 4, 5 and 6, inside.
The woman got in the van and persuaded the man to stop after she threatened him with scissors. The man, identified by police as Ifenuk, complied and was arrested a short while later.
FIRE DESTROYS MAKIKI APARTMENT
A woman and two children escaped unharmed last night as a fire destroyed their Makiki apartment.
The fire was reported at 7:09 p.m. in a first-floor apartment at 1424 Alexander St. The first firefighters to arrive reported smoke and flames billowing from a bedroom window.
Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control at 7:19 and extinguished it a few minutes later. A 66-year-old woman and her 4-year-old twin grandchildren, a boy and girl, managed to get out of the unit unharmed, Battalion Chief James Perkins said.
