Police Beat
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Jewelry box suspect charged
Police have charged a 36-year-old Kalihi man in connection with a jewelry box theft at the Aloha Tower Marketplace Showroom last month.
Todd Gebelein, 36, was charged with second-degree theft and his bail was set at $35,000, police said.
Police said a man and a woman stole koa jewelry boxes from the Martin & MacArthur store on June 25. A store employee heard the rattling of jewelry boxes in the woman's backpack and stopped the woman, but the man fled, police said.
Gebelein was identified and arrested at his Dillingham Boulevard residence Thursday afternoon, police said.
Suspect held in dragging of officer
Police yesterday were holding a 33-year-old Kalihi man who they said dragged a police officer with the man's car.
According to police, the incident happened on Colburn Street in Kalihi just before 11 a.m. Thursday when officers responded to a criminal property damage report and found the suspect inside in his car.
Police ordered the man out of his car, but he refused. An altercation ensued and one officer was dragged by the fleeing car, police said. The officer was able to break free and the motorist fled, police said.
The man was found on Nalani Street in Kalihi and arrested on suspicion of first-degree attempted murder. The injured officer, 42, was treated and released at Kaiser Moanalua Medical Center.
Police identify drowned diver
Big Island police have identified an 18-year-old man who apparently drowned Tuesday near Kailua Bay in Kona.
The victim was identified as Loren Maas, of Ventura, Calif. The victim apparently was free-diving with a friend, another 18-year-old man, off the point just north of Kailua Bay.
After nearly an hour of diving, Maas failed to surface. His friend dived to look for him and found him unresponsive in about 35 feet of water. The friend then resurfaced and called for help from a passing pleasure craft. He also called Fire Rescue for help.
It was estimated that by the time Fire Rescue brought the victim to the surface and started administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation, he had been under water for more than 20 minutes.
Fire Rescue took the victim to Kona Community Hospital, where he was admitted in critical condition. He later died.
Woman died trying to douse Kihei fire
WAILUKU, Maui — A Kihei woman killed in a house fire July 20 told a 911 dispatcher that a couch had caught fire and that she would try to put out the flames herself.
Betsy Whitcomb, 42, told the dispatcher after making the 8:18 p.m. call that she would get a hose to put out the fire, said Lt. Glenn Cuomo of the Maui Police Department. She then reported the flames were out of control, he said.
The dispatcher told her several times to leave the Ka'apuni Place house in the Maui Meadows subdivision, but Whitcomb took shelter in a bathroom, where she was overcome by smoke before firefighters could reach her.
A preliminary autopsy finding said she died of smoke inhalation, Cuomo said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
