OKINAWA CITY — A Marine lance corporal and the wife of another Marine were in police custody Saturday in two separate incidents.
According to police reports, the 21-year-old lance corporal was arrested in connection with a mugging early Friday. The woman, 24, was arrested early Saturday for allegedly attacking an Okinawa vocational school student in the restroom of a bar. Both incidents occurred in Okinawa City’s Uechi district.
Their names are being withheld pending the filing of official charges. The Marine, assigned to Camp Foster, was arrested about 4 a.m. Saturday in a bar that caters to Americans. A police spokesman said he matched the description of one of two Americans involved in the mugging of a 21-year-old Okinawa man as he walked home from work 24 hours earlier, a police spokesman said.
The store clerk said he was attacked by two Caucasian men in an alley off Highway 330. He said the two men kicked him more than 10 times in the side and face before they made off with his bandana and about $4. The other suspect remains at large, police said.
The victim sustained bruises and cuts that required minor medical treatment. According to the police report, the Marine admitted he was involved in the crime.
In the second incident, the wife of a Marine assigned to Camp Foster was arrested after allegedly attacking a 20-year-old woman from Chatan in another Uechi bar.
According to the police report, the two women began arguing in the restroom and the American pulled the Okinawa woman’s hair, punched her in the face and tried to strangle her. The American woman was arrested about 25 minutes later. She admitted to her involvement, a police spokesman said.
The two cases were being sent to the Naha District Prosecutor’s Office for the filing of official charges, he said.
