POLICE BEAT
Man charged with luring child online
Advertiser Staff
Prosecutors yesterday charged a 46-year-old man with electronic enticement of a child, accusing him of setting up a meeting online for sex with a juvenile.
Earnest L. Roberts of Kapolei was arrested Saturday morning when he went to a Wai'alae Avenue location to pick up the child, police said.
Bail was $50,000.
BIG ISLE BRUSHFIRE CHARS 6,000 ACRES
Big Island firefighters were battling a brushfire last night in Waikoloa that had burned more than 6,000 acres in 14-plus hours but was not posing a threat to any homes or other buildings.
Battalion Chief Clint Coloma said at 10:15 p.m. that more than 50 people — county firefighters and public works, state forestry and national park personnel — were battling the fire, which was moving makai toward Highway 19 and Waikoloa Road.
The fire started at 8:16 a.m. yesterday on Waikoloa Road, 1 mile mauka of Waikoloa Village. The village wasn't threatened, he said.
Gusty winds caused the fire to quickly spread south toward Kailua, Kona but the wind died down and the fire changed direction, Coloma said. By 6:20 p.m., it had burned 6,000 acres.
He said the fire could present a threat to some endangered plant species.
FIREFIGHTERS TEND TO KAUA'I HOT SPOTS
Crews with the Division of Forestry and Wildlife returned early yesterday to put out hot spots that remained after a brushfire burned approximately 225 acres in Wailua Saturday night.
Most of the area that was burned belongs to the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, said public information officer Mary Daubert. The rest was in the Kalepa Mountain Forest Reserve.
A bulldozer was used to cut along the edge of the fire lines, while chainsaw operators cut down smoldering trees.
Workers with backpack water pumps put out hot spots, and helicopters dropped buckets of water.
CABBIE CHARGED IN ATTEMPTED KILLING
A cab driver has been charged with allegedly driving his vehicle at a man and then repeatedly attempting to run over him.
Guillermo Fernandez, 51, is accused of second-degree attempted murder and was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Fernandez was involved in an argument with a customer, 29, whom he took to an Ala Moana-area parking lot near Keawe Street Friday at 8:40 a.m., police said.
Fernandez drove his cab at the man as he walked away and tried to run him down, witnesses said.
PROBE SPURRED BY BOY'S INJURIES
Police are investigating suspicious head injuries suffered by a 6-week-old boy.
Emergency-room workers at Tripler Army Medical Center reported the case to police Friday after it was determined the boy had a fractured skull.
Police had made no arrests.
