Big Island police and a state sheriff’s deputy Friday evening apprehended Jarvis Higa, one of two men who overpowered a Hawaii Community Correctional Center corrections officer and took a librarian’s car keys Wednesday morning before fleeing the facility.
Higa, 35, was arrested by a team of Hawaii Police Department officers and a Kona sheriff’s deputy around 8:15 p.m. at a Hawaiian Ocean View Estates home in Ka’u, said Department of Public Safety Spokeswoman Toni Schwartz. Higa, who was awaiting trail in an attempted murder case, is in HPD custody.
Schwartz said the team earlier in the evening located a vehicle with two occupants. When they approached, one of the occupants, suspected to be Higa, fled on foot. She said the other occupant, who did not flee, gave police information that Higa likely could be found at a HOVE home where he was later arrested.
HPD notified the public of the apprehension shortly after 9 p.m.
Higa’s counterpart in the escape, Ryan Jeffries-Hamar, 31, remains at large, Schwartz said. Hawaii Police Department Area II Criminal Investigations Section Capt. Chad Basque said late Friday that police believe he has traveled to the west side of the island. If seen, call 9-1-1 immediately.
Jeffries-Hamar, also known as Ryan James Hamar, Ryan James Jeffries, and Ryan Jeffries-Hamar, is described as Caucasian, 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 165 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes, according to police.
Basque said the department’s task force is continuing to work with the community in “an effort to safely locate and apprehend” Jeffries-Hamar.
Higa and Jeffries-Hamar escaped Wednesday after they overpowered and “beat up” a corrections officer in the facility’s law library and took a librarian’s car keys. They then kicked a security gate compromising it enough that they were able to slip out, climbed a fence and took the women’s car, which was later found abandoned.
Jeffries-Hamar is one of more than a dozen Big Islanders identified by police to have been involved in a South Kona crime spree earlier this year. He was in custody following a Sept. 8 arrest that netted him an escape charge after he allegedly failed to check in with a work furlough release program.
HCCC was placed on lockdown shortly after the escape until Thursday, Schwartz said. The law library remains closed to inmates.
