A 22-year-old Hilo man is accused of robbing the downtown Hilo Long’s Drug Store for liquor.
Makalii Kahumoku-Jose is charged with second-degree robbery and marijuana possession.
He remains in police custody in lieu of $26,000 bail and is scheduled to make his initial appearance Tuesday afternoon in Hilo District Court.
Police were called to the drugstore shortly before 4 a.m. after a man allegedly took two bottles of liquor from a shelf and shoved an employee into a sales rack before running out of the store. The suspect was seen getting into the passenger seat of a dark sport-utility vehicle last seen heading in the Puna direction on Kilauea Avenue. The victim, a 61-year-old man, wasn’t seriously injured.
Special Enforcement Unit officers arrested Kahumoku-Jose at 9 a.m. near the Mooheau Bus Terminal in downtown Hilo.
Anyone with information is asked to call the police non-emergency line at 935-3311 or Crime Stoppers at 961-8300.