Department of Public Safety spokesman Eric F. David said DPS Central received a call reporting the armed robbery incident at Smile Poker at 4:45 a.m.
He said preliminary investigation showed that a male suspect wearing a brown fisherman’s hat and white cloth concealing the lower portion of his face entered the establishment and forcefully demanded money from a female customer who was playing at one of the poker machines.
The customer told police that she turned and faced the suspect who reached into her pants and took her money from her pockets.
She said the suspect then went to the cashier’s booth and demanded money from the frightened cashier.
She said the cashier grabbed an undetermined number of bills from the cash box and threw the bills out of the booth’s window.
The cashier told police that she saw the suspect leaning down and taking all the money she threw before running out of the poker establishment.
David said the customer who had been the first victim ran to her car and honked the horn to call for help.
When she saw the suspect running out from the poker establishment and heading toward the secondary roads of Chalan Kanoa, she helped the security guard chase the suspect in her car.
The security guard managed to tackle and secure the suspect by Sablan’s Apartments just as the police arrived.
Responding police officers recovered the knife and a total of $120 from the suspect.
Police did not disclose his identity.
In April 2007, three men staged an armed robbery at the same establishment, wounding a security guard.
Police later arrested four suspects.
On April 3, 2009, a suspect armed with a blunt object who covered the lower part of his face with a piece of cloth managed to ran off with an undetermined amount of cash after robbing the cashier of Smile Poker. No one was reported hurt in the incident.
