KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Telesi Toa and cousin Francis Filipo were sitting at this corner at Niu Street and Ala Wai when bank robbery suspect Dennis Dale Pace ran by Tuesday afternoon.
Bystander recalls chase
to catch robbery suspectTelesi Toa says help from others
made the capture simple
Waianae resident Telesi Toa said it was not too difficult to help police catch a bank robbery suspect Tuesday afternoon.
Toa said the suspect, Dennis Dale Pace, slowed down as Toa and his cousin chased Pace up Pua Street, especially after Toa yelled out to two other men to stop Pace from running away.
"I said, 'Hey, stop this guy, he just robbed a bank!'" Toa said. "And then when he saw that now there were four guys after him, he just sort of gave up and started to jog.
"And I was thinking, How you gonna rob a bank and jog?"
A police affidavit filed in federal court yesterday said Pace, 34, entered the Kaheka branch of American Savings Bank at 1600 Kapiolani Blvd. at 1:43 p.m. and presented a teller with a note that said: "I am armed. This is a robbery. Give me the money. Don't try anything."
The teller gave Pace an envelope containing $4,174, according to the affidavit. Pace then put the envelope into a black backpack and fled.
Pace was charged with a federal count of bank robbery and arrested for an outstanding $50,000 contempt-of-court warrant involving a motor vehicle break-in. Police also said Pace had just recently been released after serving time for breaking into several cars at the Arizona Memorial parking lot in September 2001.
After the Tuesday robbery, Pace ran right in front of Honolulu police Detective Robert Cravalho, who was on his lunch break. A bank operations supervisor told Cravalho that Pace had just robbed the bank, and the detective commandeered a passing sport utility vehicle driven by an unidentified female. At Cravalho's request, the driver followed Pace, who had gotten into a cab.
The chase led Cravalho down Kapiolani to Pumehana Street, where both men got out on foot and headed over the McCully Street bridge toward Waikiki. Cravalho lost sight of Pace but caught a break when he ran into Toa and his cousin Francis Filipo at Niu Street and Ala Wai.
"I didn't think nothing of it at first," said Toa, "but then this other guy came up and asked us, 'Where did the guy go?' and said he was a bank robber.
"I said 'Robbed a bank?'" said Toa. "I was shocked."
Toa said his cousin spotted Pace trying to catch another cab in front of the Hawaiian Monarch Hotel at 444 Niu St. and said, "Is that him?" Cravalho said yes and yelled for the cab driver to stop.
"Right then, the guy got out and started running," Toa said. That is when all three men gave chase.
Pace ran behind the Local Motion store on Kalakaua Avenue, then cut back up on Pua Street, said Toa. That is when he yelled for help from two other men up ahead, and together they detained Pace for police.
"I was bear-hugging him, and the other guys were holding his hands so he couldn't reach for anything," said Toa, who stands 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs about 280 pounds. "They started searching him for a weapon, too, but I don't think he had one.
"He kept telling us to leave him alone."
Toa said a female police officer soon arrived at the Pua Street scene and gave the order to "Get down!"
"So we threw him down and she cuffed him," he said.
Police said Pace did not have a weapon.
Honolulu Police Department Crimestoppers
