2013.01.24
U.S. Navy sailor arrested in Yokusuka for trespassing, another for assaulting security guard
A 20-year-old U.S. Navy sailor is in Japanese custody after being arrested on suspicion of trespassing at a residence in Yokusuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Seaman Manuel Silva was taken into custody about 2:50 a.m. Monday. Police say Silva, a seaman stationed aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier based at Yokusuka, was drunk at the time of his arrest. Silva admitted he had trespassed on the grounds of the house owned by a 72-year-old woman.
Silva’s arrest is the latest incident involving American military personnel since a curfew was imposed on all U.S. service personnel in Japan following the alleged rape of a woman in October here in Okinawa. The curfew runs 11 p.m. ~ 5 a.m. Another element of the restrictions levied on service personnel is a prohibition on off-base drinking.
In another incident police have arrested a drunk U.S. sailor stationed in the Yokosuka Naval base on charges of attacking a security guard of a commercial building in Yokohama .
The suspect, John Canfield, a 22-year-old crew member on the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, told the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Department’s Tobe station that he did not remember why he was taken to the police. The police suspect the seaman recruit hit the 28-year-old Japanese male security guard in the face and slightly injured him on the first floor of the Yokohama Station building on Monday afternoon.
According to the police station, the suspect punched the security guard when he was told by the guard to stop talking persistently to a female passerby. The sailor was caught by a Japanese man and handed over to the police.