Kidnapping, robbery
captured on video

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By Nelson Daranciang
Star-Bulletin

A kidnapping and robbery case at a Makiki apartment last Wednesday was captured on videotape, police said in a court affidavit.

The tape, taken by a surveillance camera, shows three men forcing a 25-year-old man to open and enter his apartment at 1505 Kewalo St. at about 6:40 a.m., police said.

Prison parolee Arthur Birano can be seen on the tape pulling a MAC 11 assault pistol from his waistband and waving it in the air, according to the documents filed in District Court. The report also said one of the other men can be seen removing a ski mask he was wearing and putting it back on.

Birano, 29, Nicholas Nakano, 19, of Kaimuki and Bryce Takara, 25, also of Kaimuki, are charged with kidnapping, robbery and burglary in the incident. All three made initial court appearances yesterday.

Police said three men accosted the victim and his girlfriend in the parking lot of the apartment. The 25-year-old woman fled and called police, police said. She later identified the gunman as Birano.

The three men then forced the boyfriend to the third-floor apartment he shared with his girlfriend and another man, police said.

The other man who shared the apartment was awakened by someone banging on the door. He told police he saw Birano, whom he had known as "Ata," with a gun, before he fled over a lanai railing.

The victim told police he, too, went over the railing to a neighbor's lanai as the three suspects were ransacking the apartment.

Birano also was charged with firearm violations and reckless endangering in two drive-by shootings on May 8 and terroristic threatening for an incident in Kalihi on May 2. His bail is $450,000. Takara is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail. Nakano's bail is $11,000.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. tomorrow in Honolulu District Court.