Visiting musician assisted in arrest
Rock Kills Kid's singer held the suspect for police
A rock band singer and his actress girlfriend confronted a 20-year-old Navy man, who allegedly burglarized their Waikiki hotel room early Sunday morning.
The couple -- Jeff Tucker, lead singer of Rock Kills Kid, and Natasha Melnick, who was in the movie the "Hillside Strangler" and TV series "Boston Public" -- were in their fifth-floor room when a man allegedly broke into their room through a lanai glass door.
The couple told police they saw the burglar at about 5:20 a.m. Sunday allegedly trying to take their laptop computer from their room at the Doubletree Alana Hotel, 1956 Ala Moana Blvd.
Tucker had been in town to perform with his band at the Band Camp Festival on Saturday.
When Tucker confronted the suspect, he "ran towards the lanai and hopped over to escape," police said in an affidavit.
The couple noticed Tucker's wallet and other items were taken, police said.
About an hour later, Tucker's manager, Rodney Afshari, while heading to the lobby from the sixth floor, happened to bump into a man that matched the suspect's description Tucker gave him, police said.
Afshari told Tucker and Melnick about the man and the couple went up to the sixth floor and saw the suspect in the hallway, police said. They agreed it was the same man who had been in their room and confronted him, police said.
When the man was confronted, he ran to the elevators and got out at the lobby on Ala Moana Boulevard, police said.
With Tucker and Afshari in pursuit, the suspect jumped over a wall of the Waipuna, a condominium building, and hid in the pond area, police said.
The alleged burglar then jumped back over the wall, continued on Ena Road, but was caught by the two men.
Tucker and Afshari held the suspect until police arrived.
Police arrested the suspect, Brandon M. Riester, at 7:30 a.m. Sunday.
Riester, who is in the Navy, was charged Monday with first-degree burglary. Bail for Riester was set at $15,000.