Police Beat
Advertiser Staff
Kite surfer's body identified
The kite surfer whose body was discovered in the waters off Mokuleia Beach Park yesterday has been identified as Fernando Ribeiro, 33, of Hale'iwa.
The medical examiner is investigating the cause of death. Ribeiro apparently was knocked unconscious and drowned.
He was found at around noon and taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Man suspected in shipping fireworks
A Hawai'i man is facing federal charges for allegedly trying to ship more than 300 aerial rockets and other display fireworks by air from Honolulu to Moloka'i in December 1999.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court last weekcharges Clement Reyes, also known as Sonny Reyes, with possessing explosives in an airport under the control of the Federal Aviation Administration, and delivering materials containing explosives to an air carrier.
According to an affidavit signed by a special agent of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Reyes delivered 17 boxes, many of them marked with the words "light bulbs" or "light fixtures," to the Honolulu station of Trans Air on Dec. 16, 1999, with instructions to ship the goods to Moloka'i.
A company representative checked the boxes and called law enforcement officials after discovering that the boxes contained 288 three-inch "mortar shells" and 26 "Jupiter rockets," the affidavit said. The fireworks were analyzed and found to contain a mixture of explosive materials, according to the affidavit.
Four sought in assault on Wai'anae woman
Police are searching for a 28-year-old man and three other people who participated yesterday morning in an alleged kidnapping and assault of a Wai'anae woman.
According to police, the woman agreed to meet her ex-boyfriend on Lime Street in McCully and was pulled into his car. While her ex-boyfriend drove, the woman was assaulted by three passengers.
She was driven back to Lime Street and thrown out of the car, police said. She suffered abrasions and neck pain, and refused medical treatment.
Police went to the man's Atkinson Drive home, but could not find him.
Fire damages apartment
A fire on the 15th floor of a Pearl City apartment building caused no injuries but resulted in an estimated $50,000 in damage, a fire official said.
Six fire companies responded to the 7:49 a.m. call at the 19-story Highlander Condominium, 98-450 Koa Uka Loop, said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo.
He said the blaze started in the bedroom of apartment 1502. No one was home at the time. Fire damage was contained to the bedroom, but there was smoke damage throughout the apartment, Soo said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. The apartment did not have fire sprinklers, which Soo said are not required under law.
