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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 6:41 p.m., Sunday, February 24, 2008

Man charged with University Ave. attacks

Advertiser Staff

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Joseph R. Joyce

Courtesy of Honolulu Police Department

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Prosecutors today accused a 42-year-old man of allegedly pushing a security officer through a 26th-floor protective glass pane of a University Avenue apartment building Friday and attacking another resident.

Joseph R. Joyce, a transient from the East Coast with no permanent address in Hawai'i, was charged with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree burglary, second-degree assault and first-degree terroristic threatening stemming from an alleged attack on two males, ages 63 and 77, at 500 University Avenue between 4:45 and 5 p.m.

Joyce is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail pending his initial District Court appearance tomorrow. If convicted, Joyce could get an additional 15 years in prison under enhanced-sentencing guidelines due to the ages of the victims.

According to a probable-cause arrest affidavit compiled by police, the 63-year-old security officer went to the penthouse level to investigate a possible fight and saw a fire extinguisher and white powdery substance on the hallway floor when he exited the elevator and noticed the suspect standing in another elevator.

The security officer told police Joyce ran at him and pushed him into a glass window pane which broke and shattered. The suspect continued to push him through the pane and picked his legs off the ground and tried and push him out the window, the victim added.

In the document, the guard said the window frame and glass pane kept him from falling out and over the edge. Police responding to a burglary-in-progress call to the building came to the guard's assistance.

The affidavit stated one police officer parked in the loading dock area at 'Iolani School said he saw half the man's body hanging out of the window.

In an earlier confrontation at the same location, Joyce allegedly used a fire extinguisher to break down the apartment gate of a 77-year-old male resident and discharged the extinguisher in the victim's face. The victim had come out of his unit to investigate loud noises and his dogs barking and allegedly saw Joyce outside of neighboring penthouse unit holding the fire extinguisher.

Joyce fled from the building, but police arrested him without incident fronting 513 Lauiki St. at 5:48 p.m.