Police Beat

Advertiser Staff

3rd suspect held in school assault

A third suspect was arrested in the Tuesday assault of a Waipahu Intermediate School custodian.

Three boys used a 2-by-4 piece of lumber to attack the 50-year-old man at 5:35 a.m., then stole and crashed his pickup truck just outside the school.

Two boys were arrested that day at the school campus and a third boy, 13, was identified in a photo lineup and arrested yesterday.

The custodian suffered a cut to his head and a dislocated finger, police said.

Sprinkler system puts out blaze

Fire officials said a sprinkler system prevented a fire from severely damaging a Kaka'ako apartment last night.

The fire was reported in a 15th-floor apartment at 707 Halekauwila St. about 7:40 p.m. Two women in the unit said they had left some food unattended on the stove and the fire broke out, said fire spokesman Capt. Kenison Tejada.

Tejada said the sprinkler system extinguished the blaze before firefighters arrived.

Damage to the apartment was estimated at $7,000.

But Tejada said the fire would have caused much more damage had it not been for the sprinkler system.

Man injured in Hale'iwa crash

A 23-year-old man was listed in guarded condition yesterday at The Queen's Medical Center after his car struck a garbage truck at Kaiaka State Recreation Center in Hale'iwa.

The accident happened shortly before 7 a.m.

Fire and ambulance paramedics responded; fire dispatchers said the victim suffered head injuries. He was taken by helicopter to Queen's.

Man charged in sexual assaults

A 19-year-old Nanakuli man was charged yesterday with nine counts of third-degree sexual assault against an 11-year-old girl.

Reuben P. Escuadro-Lee is being held on $35,000 bail.

The assaults allegedly occurred between Dec. 1 and Jan. 31, according to police. The suspect and victim apparently knew each other, police said.