OKINAWA CITY, Okinawa — A 20-year-old airman from Kadena Air Base was in Okinawa police custody Monday, accused of vandalism after smashing a police car’s mirror, said a spokesman for Okinawa Prefectural Police in Okinawa City.
Police accused Airman Marcos A. Arguello of striking the police car’s side-view mirror with his fist as police were apprehending him, the spokesman said. He said the arrest occurred about 5:04 a.m. Sunday in Okinawa City’s Uechi district, a bar area near Kadena Air Base’s Gate 2.
The spokesman said Arguello and another airman were involved in an altercation with a bar employee after being refused entry to the bar. Police said they could not release the name of the bar. The employee called police after the second airman kicked over a flowerpot, the spokesman said, but when they arrived, it was Arguello who fled.
He was caught after a short chase but broke the mirror before police could restrain him, the spokesman said. The other airman was not arrested as the bar owner did not press charges for kicking the flowerpot, the spokesman said.
Police sent the case to the Naha District Public Prosecutor’s Office on Monday.
