Chol Kur: ‘Coward’ steals 76ers cap off boy bleeding lying on the ground next to his dying brother
A boy who had been stabbed was lying next to his fatally injured brother when a man snatched his Philadelphia 76ers cap from his head.
A Melbourne teen was lying bleeding on the ground near his dying brother when a man stole his Philadelphia 76ers cap off his head in a “callous and cowardly” act.
Chol Kur stole the cap from wounded teen Nathanial Hakiwai, who was lying near his fatally wounded younger brother Maaka in Melbourne’s northwest in September 2019.
The now 21-year-old Kur pleaded guilty to one charge of robbery in the Supreme Court of Victoria and was sentenced to 323 days in jail on Tuesday.
That is time already served and he is now eligible for release and will not be subject to parole.
“This was a senseless crime motivated … by nothing more than your selfish and concerning desire to exercise dominion over two young people you considered to be weaker than you,” Justice Andrew Tinney said in his sentencing.
The brothers were waiting at a bus stop to head to the gym when Kur spotted the pair as he and his mates drove past. Kur spoke about “drilling” or robbing the boys because he wanted the Philadelphia 76ers cap.
The car turned around and the then 19-year-old and another teen approached the brothers and told Nathanial Hakiwai to “run me that hat”.
When the teen refused to hand it over a fight broke out and another man, Joshua Horton, got out of the car and stabbed Maaka through the heart and Nathanial twice in the leg.
Kur grabbed the cap from Nathanial’s head as he lie on the ground after the stabbing and fled the scene with his friends.
Nathanial Hakiwai survived the attack, but his 17-year-old brother Maaka died.
The robbery wasn’t for financial reasons but for “the pure gratification of exerting force over others”, the judge said.
Snatching the cap from the head of a seriously injured boy was “especially callous and cowardly conduct” and the judge said the two victims were “young and innocent targets”.
“You were no more than a bully doing whatever you felt like doing,” Justice Tinney said.
The judge said Kur should be ashamed of his conduct.
In a statement about the impact of the crime, Nathanial Hakiwai said Kur played a role in his brother’s death.
“You couldn’t have one without the other. Maaka wasn’t even robbed, they only took my hat, so Maaka lost his life for nothing,” he said.
When he was assessed for a community corrections order for the crime, Kur told the assessor: “I am not remorseful, I am just sick of talking about it.”
The judge said he was satisfied Kur showed no remorse and said his prospects for rehabilitation were poor.
But he said there was still a chance for him to turn his life around but warned him he would have an “unhappy life” if he did not.
Horton was jailed in July for 13 years and six months for stabbing the brothers.