Suspect arrested for threatening grandmother for what her grandson did

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A woman contacted Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) on August 20, 2023 at 5:30 PM, reporting that her vehicle was damaged by an individual, identified as Azora Sunia, at her place of residence in Nu’uuli.

When DPS officers arrived at the victims’ residence, they were told by the victim that the defendant had fled the scene with two other individuals. According to the victim, around 5 PM, while she was in the living room with her grandkids, she heard dogs barking from outside, and told her granddaughter to check on why the dogs were being rowdy.

Her granddaughter then relayed to her that there was a car parked in front of their house, and that’s when she got up and walked outside to see whose car it was. And, as she approached the front door of the vehicle, the driver got out of the vehicle with a baseball bat in his hand.

The driver, who is the suspect, then walked towards her house to where the vehicle was parked, and allegedly began smashing its front and rear driver-side windows, shattering the windows on impact.

The victim said that she called out to the driver to see if he wanted something, but he just ignored her.

The court report says after the suspect allegedly vandalized her car, he walked up to the victim and pointed at her while holding the baseball bat, saying, “O’u ke laku a ma le pake sasa ai ou maka”,  and added, “E fai e lou grandson ae kigaiga ai oe,” — loosely translated, the suspect said that this is “all her grandson’s fault and he’ll make her pay for what he did.”

The suspect then got back into his vehicle and drove off, leaving the victim afraid for her life and her grandkids’ safety. She made a request to DPS that the suspect not come around and near them in the future.

The victim provided a rough estimation of the vehicle damage as between $5,000 and $6,000.

DPS Officers were able to locate the suspect behind the Family Mart, and informed him and the two individuals that were with him that they would be taken into the TPS for further investigation.

Prior to being taken to the TPS, the suspect told officers his version of what happened.

He said he “was hanging out at one of his friend’s house in the back of the Tutuila Store in Nu’uuli, when the victim’s grandson came over and wanted to hang out with them, but  the suspect told the grandson that ‘they don’t want him there’.”

And, when the grandson left their sight, according to Sunia, they then heard a loud noise, which they went to check out. At that time, they allegedly saw the grandson running quickly towards the road to his house; and that’s when he saw a new scratch on his car and he knew it was caused by the victim's grandson. He then jumped into his rental car along with his friends and went to the victim’s house.

Sunia said when they got to the victim’s house and realized that the grandson wasn’t there, he got out of the car and started damaging the victim’s vehicle that was parked in front of the house.

DPS officers then transported the suspect and the two witnesses to TPS for further investigation. At TPS, one of the witnesses refused to make a statement while the other willingly provided one.

According to the witness, he ‘was in front of the road when Sunia’s car came over and he just hopped in the back and [they] went straight to the victim’s house.”

“Azora got out of the car with a baseball bat and started smashing the windows of the car, and I got out and told him, the suspect, to stop”, the witness said.

Sunia was Mirandized on the same day and refused to make a statement.

He is facing two criminal charges — property damage in the first degree and private peace disturbance.

Bail is set at $5,000.