KAPAA — A manhunt is underway for a man police said robbed the Kapaa Bank of Hawaii New Year’s Eve Thursday morning at gunpoint. According to Kauai Police Department detectives, the man walked up to a teller with what appeared
KAPAA — A manhunt is underway for a man police said robbed the Kapaa Bank of Hawaii New Year’s Eve Thursday morning at gunpoint.
According to Kauai Police Department detectives, the man walked up to a teller with what appeared to be a rifle and demanded money, said county spokeswoman Sarah Blane.
According to reports, the suspect entered through the back door of the bank.
The man, described by police as a Caucasian male about 5 feet 9 inches tall and wearing a dark colored hoodie, jeans and sunglasses, then ran off with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Video surveillance caught an image of the suspect, who appears to be grabbing money. A white bag is also in the frame. He is wearing dark colored clothes, a hoodie and sunglasses.
Police arrived on the scene almost immediately according to one witness who ran away from the scene.
Another witness said he heard the suspect shout, “Put the money in the bag!”
The suspect then turned around and ran out of the front door of the bank, said James Paik Jr. who was walking into the bank as the event was unfolding.
“He was wearing a black sweatshirt with a hood on it and black glasses, so I couldn’t see the face,” Paik said. “I was walking into the bank. I just opened the door and came in.”
When he noticed that the teller was being robbed, Paik said he turned around and ran out the back door. When the suspect started to run away, Paik said he peered around the corner of the bank.
“I didn’t even see the gun,” he said. “I just started running through the back door and stayed outside. There was a girl in front of me and we turned around and went back outside.”
Paik said he saw the man get into a green car and head northbound, but police said the suspect fled on foot.
“At least he didn’t shoot anybody,” Paik said.
By noon, police had not located the man and had the Air 1 red helicopter searching the surrounding areas of Kapaa Town.
Roughly 20 KPD patrol officers were canvassing the nearby neighborhoods on foot and had closed off some of the roads in the town, Blane said.
But information was still locked tight and updates were scarce.
“I’m frustrated,” said Bank of Hawaii Senior Vice President Sonia Topenio who was standing outside with a colleague who had been at the bank just a 30 minutes prior to the robbery.
Topenio and her colleague had been on vacation for the holidays and were informed of the robbery. Twenty minutes later, they arrived on scene to find blue lights flashing and police tape surrounding their bank. A sign on the bank door read, “Branch Temporarily Closed Due to Robbery.”
Topenio said police had not told her anything about how her employees were feeling or their moods. An hour later, an officer emerged.
“They are upset,” KPD Officer Mark Ozaki said to Topenio regarding the employees’ moods inside the bank after the robbery.
The six branch employees including the manager were not allowed to leave the bank for several hours after the incident.
“I’m going to assess my team’s condition and probably be closed the rest of the day,” Topenio said. “I’ll reopen Monday. I’m more concerned about their safety and their well-being. I’m more concerned about my employees being traumatized. As a regional manager, my first and foremost priority is the wellbeing of my staff.”
On Jan. 29, 2014, a man walked into the same bank and slipped a teller a note demanding cash and said nobody would get hurt if the teller would comply, alluding to having a weapon with him. The man, Joshua Carlesen, was tried, convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Topenio said a lot of her employees are still shook up about the last incident, and she doesn’t want them to be traumatized after this event. But she also understands KPD has a job to do and wants to support the officers’ work.
“Safety of our team and customers is paramount and we are extremely thankful that there were no injuries to anyone inside the branch at the time,” Topenio said. “We will be offering assistance through our Employee Assistance Program to the employees who were at work. We will continue to work with authorities and urge anyone with information to call the Police.”
Paik said the bank was full of customers when the robbery occurred, but an exact count of customers was not readily available. Topenio said she knows at least five customers were in the bank at the time of the robbery.
Police were not able to verify Thursday if the firearm used in the robbery was real or fake.
By 5 p.m. Thursday, police had not identified a suspect and were still canvassing the area around Kapaa Town.
