REPWAK AND TWO OTHERS CAPTURED! Manhunt continues for suspect who escaped in Sinajana

Mesemwan Repwak, aka AJ Jain, is in police custody along with a yet-to-be-named accomplice and an unnamed abetter, while police and other law enforcement agents search for another suspect following a manhunt in Sinajana.

According to police chief Stephen Ignacio at a 1 p.m. news conference, the descent of Guam Police Department officers, assisted by marshals from the Unified Judiciary of Guam, began after Mr. Repwak and three other men tried to box in a motorist along Route 4 Sinajana. The event led to a crash near Ada’s Funeral Home, followed by the men allegedly assaulting the driver of the vehicle. Police were called around 7:50 a.m. regarding the incident.

The assailants were armed with a shotgun and a machete. The victim, according to the police chief sustained non-life threatening injuries to his back. The victim identified one of the assailants as Repwak, who fled into the jungles along with the other assailants.

Police arrived shortly after the suspects fled. According to several witnesses observing police activities since that time, law enforcement flooded the village, staking out in several corners over a wide perimeter from Afame into Sinajana village, with focus paid to a home behind Sinajana Mobil gas station.

“At about 7:43 this morning we heard the screeching of the brake sounds of a car,” one witness, who was near the area of the crime scene all morning, told Kandit. “And then we heard a car take off. Then we heard it hit the pole of the gas station, and then it took off. And that’s when all of this began.”

The witness continued to observe the events unfold as law enforcement began their search.

“So all day we were watching, we were looking,” the witness said. “Then all of a sudden the guy jumped the gate, then I don’t know where GPD was hiding, but they were in the area, and it happened so fast!”

The witness account corroborates the events timeline Mr. Ignacio presented at the news conference.

“Shortly after 11:25 a.m. officers converged on a residence at which time he was brought into custody,” Mr. Ignacio said of the apprehension of Mr. Repwak.

The residence, according to the witness, was a two-story white house behind Mobil Sinajana, but set back from the secondary road going into Sinajana village. A video the witness took which went viral around 11:30 a.m. today shows law enforcement officers arresting two people directly behind Sinajana Mobil. The two story white house could be seen in the background of that video, along with what appears to be a person jumping the fence a few feet behind where the officers were subduing the assailants. A photo of the events show a man seated near officers wearing a white shirt and red shorts.

“As soon as they were done and they secured him into the SUV,” the witness said, “some of the SWAT jumped the gate and ran after the guy in the white shirt with the red shorts and then they cuffed him. And the rest of the SWAT drove to the house. Some of them jumped the gate, and they’re still there up to now (this eye witness account was given at 12:18 p.m.) searching the house. You can see them going in and out with rifles and stuff trying to search the house to see who else is in there. We had a white SUV pull up behind our building, and it kind of stopped traffic and I think it was watching and it didn’t want to go down that road, and then a cop came behind that white SUV, and the white SUV took off, and then the cop turned going towards the house, where the rest of the SWAT was.”

“Some of the residents helped us out,” GPD Captain Kim Santos, division chief of the Criminal Investigations Division, said during the news conference. “They told us, ‘we saw the guy go into the residence,’ and that’s why we went in. Sure enough, he took off from the back door. And that’s how we were able to apprehend him.”

 

Suspect at large; GPD now looking for people who helped Repwak

The manhunt continues for a third male suspect, who is unnamed at this time and whose description has yet to be released by police.

“People should still take precautions, because the other individual who was with him has not been apprehended, and we are still very much searching for him,” Ms. Santos said.

“The case is very active, very fluid, and very much ongoing,” Mr. Ignacio said, adding that one of the men captured this morning is believed by police to have been helping to hinder Mr. Repwak’s apprehension.

“Anyone found to be involved in helping them in any way will be held accountable,” Ms. Santos warned. “We are actively looking for them. We have one in custody who may have hindered him.”

 

The allegations known so far against Repwak and others

Mr. Repwak, the police chief said earlier this week, was forming a street gang partial to the color green and whose violence is escalating.

Police believe he is the man responsible for the shooting of a 14-year-old girl near Shop for Less in Maite on May 3, 2024, at 2:39 a.m. Her injuries were non-lethal, and she has been released from the hospital, he said. The shooting occurred while the girl was the passenger in a moving vehicle.

The crime is consistent with reports of criminal conspiracies involving the boxing in of victims traveling on the road in order to steal their cars. Mr. Ignacio confirmed those reports are linked to this case.

The GMC truck police believe Mr. Repwak is operating has been involved in several criminal investigations dating to August 2023, Mr. Ignacio said. Police were on a 24-hour search operation to find him due to the severity and increasing violence of his crimes, and the danger he posed to every Guamanian.

“Not only does he have an outstanding warrant of arrest, but he is wanted in several felony cases,” Mr. Ignacio said earlier this week. Those cases, he said, involved victims who have been physically assaulted with machetes and guns.

These are some of the crimes he is believed to have recently been involved in:

• On August 23, 2023, “Repwak and three other male individuals attacked a victim with a machete outside Hana Market in Harmon. This also involved a car jacking as well,” Mr. Ignacio said.
• April 14, 2024, “Repwak was identified as one of the individuals involved in the theft of vehicle on Robat Street in Maite. This again was another car jacking incident,” Mr. Ignacio said.
• On April 16, 2024, “Repwak brandished a pistol during an altercation in Barrigada resulting in injuries to a mother. This was at a residence, or apartment complex located on San Roque street, right down the street from the mayor’s office, the park, and the church,” Mr. Ignacio said.
• On April 24, 2024, “Repwak fled the scene after being pursued by officers, leaving behind a vehicle containing a rifle and suspected methamphetamine,” Mr. Ignacio said.
• May 3, 2024, “Repwak was observed attempting to steal vehicles using stolen keys from Nissan in Upper Tumon,” Mr. Ignacio said.
• May 3, 2024, “A 14-year-old female … was shot while traveling in a vehicle pursued by Repwak,” Mr. Ignacio said.
• May 5, 2024, “Stolen items linked to Repwak were discovered during a search of a residence he had been hiding in,” Mr. Ignacio said.
• May 7, 2024, “Repwak and accomplices engaged in a high-speed chase and altercation with a victim in Maite,” Mr. Ignacio said.

 

Mr. Repwak would not have been able to commit all but one of these crimes had Judge Jonathan Quan not released him from jail on January 3 this year.

The suspect was arrested in late December and was separately charged in two felony cases stemming from an April 11, 2023 aggravated assault of his then-girlfriend, and a July 7, car theft at Hana Market in Harmon.

According to the magistrates complaint in the April aggravated assault case, Mr. Repwak severely beat his girlfriend at the time with his hands and a stick, and also assaulted a minor in her household during the alleged attack.

Police were able to catch Mr. Repwak because he swerved into a late night sobriety checkpoint on December 28, 2023. According to the magistrates complaint in that case, “As Defendant exited the vehicle, officers observed him attempting to conceal an object in his right hand and throw a black handgun into the passenger side of the vehicle. Offices instructed Defendant and the two passengers to lay on the ground, however, they refused to comply. Officers then called for backup. The officer then drew his weapon and instructed the three to lay on the ground, again. They refused to comply. Another officer arrived at the scene to assist and was informed that there were firearms within the vehicle. At that point, officers discovered the license plate AH6431 inside the vehicle and verified the VlN affixed to the vehicle, which reviewed to be stolen.”

Attorney General Douglas Moylan, in his February edition of his monthly report on the criminal justice system’s so-called “catch, release, and reoffend” problem, named Mr. Repwak’s release by Judge Quan as part of the ongoing rise in crime. “The numbers are increasing resulting in more crime in our villages,” Mr. Moylan wrote at the time. “Senators must act by changing the release conditions by statute. The senators need to change Guam law to protect our client – the people of Guam – from continuing to become crime victims.  The stats do not lie, and are worsening. Career criminals and meth addicts must be locked up to protect us.”

 

An undated crime report from police case 2024-10484 that was leaked to Kandit describes a shooting incident that occurred along Maimai Road in Ordot that nearly matches the modus operandi Mr. Ignacio confirmed is associated with Mr. Repwak and his forming street gang.

A man who was driving with his wife in the passenger seat, according to the crime report, said they “were traveling east on Maimai Rd., Chalan Pago, passing Apusento Gardens, when a black pick up truck, who behind them, overtook on the oncoming lane. He looked at his side view mirror and saw a green cafe bike approach him from behind in a high rate of speed.”

The victim slowed his vehicle in order to slow the cafe bike, according to the report. “As he slowed down,” the report states, “he looked at his side view mirror and noticed the motorcycle stopped in an angle. He then observed the operator of the motorcycle pull out a black pistol from the front of his waist area. The operator then pointed the pistol towards his vehicle at which time he heard a gun shot.”

The report does not indicate whether either of the victims were shot, though it does describe them chasing the cafe bike while the woman was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher to report the crime and their whereabouts.

 

“Repwak is trying to establish a street gang,” Mr. Ignacio said earlier this week. “And we need to shut that gang down.” The police chief said the suspect is known to “roll around” with three or four others close to him. “This is probably the early formation of a street gang led by a very dangerous individual, and we will bring him in,” he said earlier this week. Police do not yet know the name of the gang.

Mr. Ignacio confirmed reports brought to his attention by the Guam Daily Post’s Shane Tenorio Healy of a recent criminal conspiracy involving cars boxing in victims traveling on the road and shooting at them in attempts to steal the cars. The chief confirmed those reports are tied to Mr. Repwak. “That seems to be his method of operation,” Mr. Ignacio said. “He operates with other people, sometimes with one car, sometimes with multiple cars, and that’s how they execute car jackings.”