Haliimaile man beaten during home invasion
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Two robbers wearing black leather pants, gloves, jackets and visored motorcycle helmets pistol-whipped a 59-year-old disabled Haliimaile man, knocked his friend unconscious and stole $20,000 from a just-opened safe Sunday, the victim reported Wednesday.
At 11:43 a.m. Sunday, Richard Ingram had been sitting in his 10-by-12-foot living room, talking with a friend, when he opened a safe to get some medication and "at that second, two guys busted into my door," he said.
The assailants were covered in motorcycle gear, so there was "not an inch of skin you can identify," Ingram said. "Before I knew it, they reached in and pulled out guns."
The larger of the two robbers said: "Give it up right now, m—– f—–, or die!"
The robber pointed what appeared to be a small-caliber revolver at Ingram and pulled the trigger, but it didn't fire, he said.
The robber shook the weapon, pointed it at Ingram again, pulled the trigger, and it didn't go off, he said.
Ingram said he yelled at the robber, "You're going to have to kill me!"
He said he lunged at the man, grabbed him around his knees, and both of the robbers beat him with pistols.
Ingram said his friend had been hit, and "he was out cold."
Meanwhile, Ingram struggled with the robbers for "what seemed like forever" until they grabbed his money in a maroon Wailuku Federal Credit Union deposit bag and drove off on a small white Ninja-type motorcycle, he said.
"I remember fighting every second to stay conscious," he said.
Ingram said blood was pouring down his face, and he wasn't able to see the bike's license plate number. He screamed for help, but no one came, he said.
He described one of his male assailants as being 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, weighing about 160 pounds, and the other as being 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-7 and weighing around 140 pounds.
Ingram said he had no broken bones, although he was left with severe bruising on his face, his shoulder blades and his right foot. He has severe chest pains. Doctors needed to use staples to close lacerations in his head, he said.
Ingram said that the money had been in his safe after he added to his personal savings by taking out a $10,000 loan from American Savings Bank and $7,500 from First Hawaiian Bank to pay for a trip June 23 to July 3 to Charleston, W.Va., for himself, his stepson and a boxing coach.
His stepson, Waianae High School student Asa Stevens, is set to compete as a boxer in the Junior Olympic, Youth Open and Prep National Championships in West Virginia.
Stevens' coach, Fred Pereira of Oahu, said that he and Asa had been relying on Ingram to finance the trip, although he understands they're still going to the national championships, despite the robbery.
"It's terrible," Pereira said. "I can't believe anyone would do something like that."
And, what makes it worse, he said, is that Ingram already has health problems.
Those include coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and osteoarthritis, Ingram said.
Stevens appears to have a bright future as a boxer, possibly even becoming an Olympic gold-medal contender, Pereira said.
"He is fantastic," he said. "Last year, he beat the world champion," referring to an opponent in Stevens' weight division.
"He's so talented," Pereira said, adding that Stevens is a straight-A student.
Ingram said Stevens is an "extraordinary, awesome child."
"I'm blessed to have him in my life," he said.
Ingram said he'd go deeper into credit-card debt to pay for the trip, despite losing the money in the robbery, the timing of which he did not believe was coincidental.
"I've been set up," he said. "No doubt in my mind, somebody said something to somebody."
Ingram said there were security cameras outside his residence because he has been robbed before. Police took custody of the video as part of their investigation, he said.
According to a police report, the case is being investigated as a first-degree robbery, second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault.
Maui Police Department spokesman Lt. Gregg Okamoto said that the police investigation was ongoing Wednesday.
Ingram said he hoped people might help him recover what he lost in the robbery. He can be reached at (808) 298-1401, 793-2241 or ingramrichard69@gmail.com.
Already, he said, he has received an "outpouring of calls from people who want to help."
He speculated that his assailants were "kids messed up on pain pills and ice."
He described himself as just an old, disabled guy, and "that makes you an instant mark, a total, easy mark."
* Brian Perry can be reached at bperry@mauinews.com.