The man who murdered a South Korean tourist on Guam has been found dead by suicide and the driver of the getaway vehicle has been arrested. I figured an island that small with all the cameras around the criminals would be found:
A man suspected of fatally shooting a South Korean tourist during a robbery last week in Guam was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his alleged getaway driver was in custody, police in the U.S. territory said Tuesday.
Police said the first suspect was found dead inside a parked car Tuesday night, KUAM-TV reported. Police won’t release his name until his family has been notified.
A second man believed to have been the driver of the SUV allegedly used in the deadly Jan. 4 robbery was found in a game room and taken into custody, police said.
The Tsubaki Tower area of Tumon Beach is actually a pretty nice tourism area on the island with some expensive resorts. These criminals must have figured anyone walking down the sidewalk there must of had money on them. Hopefully the Guam authorities catch whoever did this:
Police tape is seen wrapped around a pole in front of Tsubaki Towers in Tamuning, Guam, Jan. 5, after a fatal shooting on the previous day. AP-Yonhap
The authorities in the U.S. territory of Guam vowed Friday to bring to justice those who fatally shot a Korean visitor in a tourist district.
The shooting occurred shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday when the traveler and his wife were walking toward Tsubaki Towers, a hotel on Guam’s popular Tumon Bay, from nearby Gun Beach, KUAM-TV reported, citing police.
An older model, dark-colored SUV approached them from behind, Guam Police Chief Stephen Ignacio said at a news conference.
A passenger holding a gun got of the vehicle and demanded they hand over their belongings, Ignacio said, adding, “A struggle ensued.”
The victim was taken to Guam Regional Medical City, where he died from his injuries the next morning. He had been visiting Guam while celebrating his retirement.
The Guam Visitors Bureau has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
The island of Guam was hit recently by a massive typhoon that caused the Korean tourists on the island to be trapped there for almost a week. They are now being evacuated from the island:
South Korean tourists stranded on Guam will return home as the international airport on the island resumed operation Monday afternoon after closure due to a powerful typhoon, airline officials said.
The country’s four carriers — Korean Air Co., Jeju Air Co., Jin Air Co. and T’way Air — said they have resumed flights to bring back Korean tourists starting Monday, as the Guam airport reopens at 2 p.m. (Korean time) or 3 p.m. (local time) on the same day.
The carriers plan to send a total of 11 passenger jets to Guam on Monday to bring about 2,500 Korean travelers home, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Those planes are expected to arrive at the airport in Guam from Monday to Tuesday.
Awesome photos of JASDF (🇯🇵) and USAF (🇺🇸) aircraft flying in formation near Guam (🇬🇺) during the Cope North 2023 exercise last week. pic.twitter.com/AmHd4jtS3x
The former Captain in charge of the Theodore Roosevelt who was relieved has become something of a folk hero on social media:
Capt. Brett Crozier, then-commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt addresses the crew during an all-hands call in the ship’s hangar bay March 3, 2020. Crozier was relieved of command after his letter that warned sailors could die from the coronavirus outbreak aboard the carrier was leaked to the media.
A cheering and applauding crowd of sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt wished farewell to their captain, whom the Navy relieved of command after he raised concerns about the spreading coronavirus on his ship in a letter that was leaked to the media.
Hundreds were pictured in the gathering in the ship’s hangar deck and many chanted Capt. Brett Crozier’s name in multiple videos posted to social media.
A video posted Friday to the Facebook page of Michael Washington included the hashtags #MYCO and #WEARETRSTRONG.
“That’s how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had,” someone says in the video, then using an acronym for greatest of all time, adds: “The GOAT, the man for the people.”
Crozier was dismissed Thursday due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command and for not using his chain of command to make service leaders aware of his concerns about the virus outbreak that had infected more than 100 sailors on the ship, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said at the Pentagon.
When I first heard about this story I thought initially he got screwed, but unlike social media I actually will go and read more source documents about what happened.
The memo that was leaked is posted on the San Francisco Chronicle website and the first thing I thought while reading the letter is why wasn’t this sent over a SIPR computer which classified information should be sent? The letter was filled with information about the operational readiness of the ship. Sending the message over a classified network would have avoided this whole mess.
Secondly, here is the part of the San Francisco Chronicle article that was buried that no one is talking about; why was the crew allowed to go on shore leave in Vietnam?:
Gilday told reporters last week it was unclear if sailors became infected following the ship’s previous port of call in early March to Da Nang, Vietnam. Gilday said they debated whether to go on with the Vietnam visit, but at the time there were only 16 coronavirus cases in northern Vietnam and the port was in the central part of the country.
Sailors were screened prior to returning on board. The first three sailors tested positive 15 days after leaving Vietnam, officials said.
I read that 16 infected number and instantly did not believe it because it is coming from a regime, just like the Chinese, that can easily suppress information. Vietnam likely has a far larger coronavirus problem that they don’t want the outside world to know about. It seems to me this was a very bad decision to have a port call in a country right next door to the coronavirus epicenter.
Lastly for people that have been to Naval Base Guam, this is not a huge base with a lot of open accommodations for 5,000 people on an aircraft carrier that just showed up. The only place to house that many people in rooms that can be quarantined would be in resort hotels in Tumon. Think of Tumon as the mini-Waikiki of Guam, outside of the military Tumon is the economic engine of Guam with its tourist industry.
How many resort hotels you think were eager to fill their business with sailors possibly infected with coronavirus? Plus how many residents of Guam wanted these sailors in the community when they see photos like this of sailors congregating on the beach in defiance of orders put out by the local government to practice social distancing:
Photos of people on the beach on Guam have shared on social media with accompanying messages claiming these are USS Theodore Roosevelt sailors who are supposed to be quarantined. Joint Region Marianas said none of the people pictured are USS Roosevelt sailors. Joint Reion Marianas said this photo was taken on March 21, before the USS Roosevelt was in Guam.
Getting this many sailors into resort hotels was going to take Navy leaders time to make happen with the local government and hotel owners:
Moving sailors out of Naval Base Guam into hotels was criticized by Sen. Sabina Perez and community groups.
Eight community groups said in a statement: “The decision to house them in the middle of our community is playing a game of chance with the health of our people.”
This was not going to be something easily done especially when you take in consideration the sensitivities the people of Guam have of past colonization. The Navy was going to have to work carefully with Guam’s political leadership to make this happen and all indications are they did:
When the vessel docked, there were no beds and now, a week later, there are almost 3,000 beds for the crew, Modly told reporters at a press briefing. Creating available space for the sailors happened in a week, he said.
“That’s not because of this letter,” Modly said, referring to Crozier’s letter. “That’s because of stuff going on well before the letter was sent.”
Modly added the letter was sent via email and copied to 20 or 30 other people. The letter created the perception the Navy wasn’t on the job and created a degree of panic, he said.
It seems like people on social media are looking for a COVID-19 hero of some kind, but Captain Crozier in my opinion is not it. If people want some COVID-19 heroes here are the people that get my vote.
Does anyone think that a bio-attack will be used in a future conflict when an aircraft carrier can be taken out like this:
Ships from the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and from the America Expeditionary Strike Group transit the South China Sea in formation on March 15, 2020.
The Navy, the military service hit hardest by the coronavirus, scrambled Friday to contain its first at-sea outbreak, with at least two dozen infected aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, one of 11 active aircraft carriers whose mission is central to the Pentagon’s strategy for deterring war with China and Iran.
The Roosevelt and its contingent of warplanes may be sidelined for days, sitting pier side in Guam as the entire crew — more than 5,000 — is tested. Navy leaders say the carrier could return to duty at any time if required, but the sudden setback is seen as a harbinger of more trouble to come.
A fan of President Trump’s decision to stop joint wargames against North Korea is Guam Governor Eddie Calvo:
Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo meets with President Trump on Air Force One during a refueling stop at Andersen Air Force Base early on Wednesday morning local time.
Gov. Eddie Calvo met with President Donald Trump as the president made a pit stop at Andersen Air Force Base early Wednesday morning.
Trump was on his return trip from Singapore after a historic summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. (……)
“The war games are very expensive. We pay for a big majority of them. We fly in bombers from Guam,” Trump said after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un.
“I said — when I first started, I said, ‘Where do the bombers come from?’ ‘Guam. Nearby.’ I said, ‘Oh, great, nearby. Where’s nearby?’ ‘Six and a half hours.’ Six and a half hours — that’s a long time for these big massive planes to be flying to South Korea to practice and then drop bombs all over the place, and then go back to Guam. I know a lot about airplanes; it’s very expensive. And I didn’t like it.”
Calvo said he supports Trump’s decision to halt bomber flights from Andersen. Calvo said the exercises were “threatening,” and put Guam in North Korea’s crosshairs. [Guam PDN]
You can read more at the link, but Governor Calvo as was reported to have told Trump that the people of Guam breathed a “big sigh of relief” after the summit since the island has been repeatedly threatened over the years by North Korea for missile attacks.
As much as I enjoy Japan (and diving in Guam), a lot of younger sailors don't want to be so far from home for 4 years. Understand it operationally, but I think detailers are going to be telling more they're going vs. seeing requests. https://t.co/Ag7GYWp02W
I had no idea that the name of the infamous aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was actually someone’s name:
Gov. Eddie Calvo’s former spokesman Troy Torres was arrested in connection with conspiracy to distribute drugs after police found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in a residence, police said Saturday.
Torres, 37, of Mangilao was arrested Friday after the Mandaña Drug Task Force and SWAT raided a house on Chrysanthemum Street in Latte Heights, according to Guam Police Department spokesman Sgt. Paul Tapao.
Torres, along with the two others he was arrested with — John Vincent Aguigui Salas, 35, and Enolagay Aliga, 27, both of whom were arrested in connection with illegal possession of a Schedule II controlled substance, according to Tapao — were released Saturday afternoon, according to the Department of Corrections. [Pacific Daily News]
You can read more at the link, but the Enola Gay airplane actually took off from the island of Tinian which is a short distance north of Guam in the Mariana Islands chain. I wonder if her parents named her after the plane?
This guy on Guam was arrested for trying to implement the “drinky girl” system with Filipino women that was once prevalent around US military installations in South Korea:
A producer who arranged for band members from the Philippines to perform on Guam, but had them illegally sell drinks in bars, “sounds like a bad guy,” said District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, who questioned why he got such a lenient deal from prosecutors.
“I’m not sympathetic to this guy,” she said. “It sounds like he’s holding them hostage.”
Jemuel Luciano appeared in district court twice this week for sentencing after he entered a plea agreement.
In 2013, Luciano petitioned band members to come to Guam to perform, documents state. The female band members performed at Club Chicboy and other bars, and during their breaks were forced to sell drinks at about $30 a drink, which violated their visa status, said prosecutor Stephen Leon Guerrero.
Of the $30 drink sales, $10 would go to the bar, $10 would go to the band and $10 would go to Luciano, said Department of Homeland Security agent Brent Tablan. [Pacific Daily News]
