April 13, 2021
BAY AREA, California—Roman Jeremiah Banks, 18, of San Francisco was arrested and charged for kidnapping, conspiracy, and burglary for home invading a Visitacion Valley home of two Chinese seniors ages 81 and 87 back on February 16, 2021.
Banks was also charged with two counts of robbery, two counts of elder abuse, negligent discharge of a firearm, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, carrying a loaded firearm in the commission of a felony, carrying a loaded firearm, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, destruction of evidence, and resisting a peace officer, according to SFGate.
Dion Lim of ABC7 discovered a few months earlier Banks was sacked by Semisi Saluni of Concord, an Oregon State outside linebacker who confronted him while he was saving his family from a car break-in while sightseeing at Twin Peaks.
“The person broke in, broke the window there and then, took my mom’s purse and tried to run,” says Semisi via a Zoom interview from his dorm room at Oregon.
After Saluni’s cousin tackled Banks to the ground, Semisi quickly held him down until police arrived on scene.
“I’m just grateful everyone is safe and nothing happened to my family,” Saluni told Dion Lim.
Saluni’s father even tried talking some sense to Banks before he was taken away by police.
“My dad tried to give him some advice and to make better choices and stuff. We didn’t even press charges, hoping the kid had his lesson learned.”
Unfortunately, those words fell on deaf ears as Banks was arrested a couple months later for home invasion.
Saluni had a message for Banks, who was only a few years younger thank him.
“My advice for the youth is ‘believe you can make it out and you can do better and be an example to others.’ No matter where you come from you have to put your mind in the right place make your money go work get a job go to school. The small simple things anybody can do it.”
ABC7 News reached out to the DA’s office who sent this response:
Our office filed charges against Mr. Banks for the Twin Peaks burglary and he was released on his own recognizance. That case remains pending. In Mr. Banks’s more recent case, our office has filed more than 10 felony charges against him and we sought his detention without bail. The court set bail of $100,000 over our objection and Mr. Banks then posted bail. His preliminary hearing is set for April 15.
Feature Images via Twitter & ABC7