A 17-year-old youth who was being held at the Alder Street detention home for unspecified reasons is in deeper trouble now, suspected of attacks on another youth at the facility yesterday as well as on a worker who tried to stop the first assault.

A 37-year-old man who works at the home told police he was trying to stop the boy from beating another detainee when the boy turned and struck him several times.

Police were called, and the boy was arrested on suspicion of second-degree assault.

Wai'anae shots lead to an arrest

A Wai'anae man picked the wrong spot yesterday to fire several shots from a handgun. Police had gone to an area near Pu'uohulu Beach Park to investigate an unrelated incident when they heard what sounded like gunshots at about 11:20 a.m.

They crossed the street to check and found a man who told them that he also heard the gunshots, but that they were coming from a different area.

The officers saw no one else in the area and became suspicious of a bulge under the man's shirt. The officers patted the man down and found a handgun tucked in the waistband of his shorts.

The man, 47, from the Wai'anae area, was arrested on suspicion of a firearms violation.

Car-theft victim aids in arrest

Quick thinking and bold action by a man whose car had been stolen helped police find the car in Waipahu yesterday.

When the man saw his stolen car being driven through Waipahu at about 11 a.m., he quickly called police and then followed the car to the parking lot of an auto-parts store.

The car owner then blocked the stolen car with the one he was driving, and two men in the stolen car got out and ran. The car owner gave police a detailed description of the two fugitives and police issued an all points bulletin.

Police stopped a man matching the description, and the owner of the stolen car identified the detained man, who was arrested on car-theft charges.

Electricity fails on Big Island

A problem with a generator at Hamakua Energy Partners left about 8,600 Big Island residents without electricity beginning around 3:51 this morning.

The generator was feeding about 31.5 megawatts into the Hawaii Electric Light Co. system when the problem arose, resulting in an automatic shutdown to customers in various parts of the Big Island to protect the rest of the system.