Police: SF airman admits role in taxi holdup

[unhappycamper]

Police: SF airman admits role in taxi holdup
Kyodo News Agency
Posted : Thursday Apr 10, 2008 7:26:23 EDT

NAHA, Japan — A 22-year-old U.S. security forces airman has admitted to involvement in a taxi holdup last month by four sons of U.S. troops in Okinawa during questioning by Japanese police on a voluntary basis, police sources said Thursday.

The airman, assigned to Kadena Air Base, has testified that he was near the scene of the taxi holdup, and the police plan to send papers on him to prosecutors next week on suspicion of robbery and injuring the taxi’s driver, the sources said.

The airman was close to the four youths, inviting them to his house inside the base for meals and letting them stay overnight, the sources said.

According to the investigation, the airman is suspected of conspiring with the four youths to carry out the crime, in which the taxi driver was allegedly beaten and robbed of about 8,000 yen ($78) in cash by three of the youths pretending to be customers on a street in the city of Okinawa on March 16. The airman denies he instructed the four to rob the taxi, police said.

The U.S. military detained the airman after two of the four youths were arrested in mid-March in a separate theft case, and has since been allowing the Japanese police to question him on a voluntary basis.


Article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/04/kyo_taxirobbery_041008/