Taxi driver says that he wrestled away gun

Yu Kyo Kim remains in critical condition after being robbed on Moanalua Road

Honolulu police said the taxicab driver who was shot in the neck by a robber last week had tried to wrestle the gun away from the suspect.

The victim, 52-year-old Yu Kyo Kim, is still in critical condition at the Queen's Medical Center but was able to communicate with detectives on a limited basis yesterday. Kim was found in the parking lot of the First Hawaiian Bank at 98-1071 Moanalua Road on Friday night after the suspect shot him and stole his taxivan, which was recovered later in Kailua.

"The suspect in this case brandished the gun in the robbery, and the victim wrestled the gun away from him," said Honolulu Police Department spokesman Capt. Frank Fujii. "We don't know if he got shot before or after he wrestled the gun away from the suspect. It's unclear at this time because he's still in critical condition."

Fujii said police have recovered fingerprints from the scene and are in the process of trying to identify them. The gun was identified as a .25-caliber handgun, which was registered to a woman who died more than 20 years ago.

"We are in the process of investigating who had the gun last," Fujii said.

Kim had been called to 126 Noki St. in Aikahi to pick up a client Friday. The Global Positioning System showed him traveling down the highway to the Pearlridge area where the shooting occurred at 9:11 p.m.

Police are asking for any witness to the shooting or who might have seen the suspect afterward to come forward.

Police are also asking for the public's help in solving another taxi robbery case that took place in Kalihi early Tuesday. In that case, 37-year-old Joe Cu, a cab driver for Central Taxi, said he picked up a fare near Kapiolani Boulevard and Kalakaua Avenue and was taking him to the Dillingham area, where the suspect then told him to drive into the back parking lot of Bank of Hawaii at 1617 Dillingham Blvd.

Cu said he assumed his client was going to get out of his car to go to the automated teller machine, but instead he felt a sharp object poke the right side of his ribs. The suspect told Cu that it was a robbery, and Cu handed over the money in his pocket.

Afterward, the suspect told Cu to drive him to Kalani Street, where the suspect got out on foot, and Cu said he tried to run him down with his taxi. The suspect escaped, however, and is still at large.

Police now have a composite of the suspect from this week's taxi robbery. He is described as 20 to 25 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, 160 to 180 pounds, with black short wavy hair and a tanned complexion.

He was last seen wearing a black short-sleeved shirt, blue denim shorts, and was carrying a black backpack and a rectangle pink zippered shoulder bag much like a purse, according to detectives.

"It was bright pink, so it should stand out," said Sgt. Kim Capllonch, CrimeStoppers coordinator.

Although both taxi robberies took place in bank parking lots, Fujii said police have "no reason to believe these robberies are connected." Anyone with information about either case is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or by dialing *CRIME on a cellular phone.