Police Beat

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Round Top Drive body identified

The city medical examiner has identified the person whose body was found Monday morning along Round Top Drive as 61-year-old man Taaviliga Panapa. Panapa had no known local address.

The body, found by a jogger near the five-mile marker on Round Top, had been partially covered by a trash bag and showed evidence of having been beaten on the head, homicide Lt. Bill Kato said.

"There was definitely head trauma," Kato said. "It's a matter of the autopsy to see if that's what killed him."

Police Detective Letha DeCaires said the CrimeStoppers hotline received calls Monday night from someone who claimed to know who might have killed the man.

Teen arrested after break-in

Police arrested a Kailua teenager late Sunday after he allegedly broke into a Hekili Street business while the shop owner and his family slept inside.

The owner of I & I Sports, 131 Hekili St., told police he was awakened at 11:45 p.m. Sunday by the sound of someone sawing through the roof. He said he saw the shadow of someone using a tool to punch through the roof, and called police.

The intruder ran away. Police arrested a 17-year-old boy in the area, and released him pending further investigation.

Attempted murder probe opened

Detectives have opened an attempted-murder investigation in the case of a 30-year-old Makaha man whose girlfriend was struck by a car Saturday at Nanakuli Beach Park.

Police were called to the park around 2 a.m. Saturday after witnesses said the man drove his car into his 23-year-old girlfriend.

Police arrested the man Saturday on unrelated warrants. But the victim, who had been taken to the hospital by the time police arrived, later told detectives about alleged episodes of assault Thursday and Friday at Mililani Cemetery and a pineapple field near Wahiawa.

The man was arrested Monday on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnapping, assault, abuse and terroristic threatening.