A Schofield Barracks soldier was shot multiple times and killed by police after he drove a large pickup truck recklessly through the streets of Waikiki early Tuesday and disregarded repeated orders by police officers to stop.
Three officers were injured when the truck rammed their vehicles. They were treated for minor injuries at a hospital and released.
The incident began just before 4 a.m. and involved two shooting scenes: on Kuhio Avenue near Nahua Street, and on Ala Wai Boulevard between Lewers and Kaiolu streets.
The Army confirmed that the driver of the dark blue Dodge truck involved in the incident was an enlisted soldier assigned to the 25th Infantry Division. The Army withheld the soldier’s identity pending notification of next of kin. Police did not disclose his name.
Although the incident is under investigation, the initial indications are that officers acted properly, said police Maj. Richard Robinson, head of the Criminal Investigations Division. "It was a very dangerous situation. It appears that the officers acted properly to contain that situation and to minimize the danger to the public," he said.
As is procedure when HPD officers fire a weapon, the incident is being investigated by both CID and the Professional Standards Division, formerly known as the Internal Affairs Division. Officers who fire their weapons typically are placed on three-day administrative leave, Robinson said.
It was not immediately known whether the suspect had a weapon, and police had not yet searched the truck, Robinson said at a late-morning news conference. Video of the incident, however, "clearly shows the danger of that situation," he said.
Officers are trained to discharge a weapon when they think such force is needed "to protect themselves and others from death or serious bodily injury," he said.
The series of events began when foot patrol officers on Kuhio Avenue and Nahua Street noticed a truck speeding in the wrong direction on Nahua, Police Chief Louis Kealoha said.
"The truck crossed Kuhio and stopped briefly on the sidewalk where officers approached the vehicle," he said. "The vehicle then reversed back onto Nahua, turned onto Kuhio and accelerated toward an officer.
"The officer fired multiple shots at the truck as it drove towards him, narrowly missing him."
A police source said the officer who fired his HPD-issued Smith and Wesson 9 mm pistol was near The PlaYbar, the former location of Scruples, at the time he engaged with the suspect.
The truck then sped Ewa-bound on Kuhio, turned onto Lewers Street and onto the sidewalk as two officers attempted to stop him, Kealoha said. "The truck continued onto the Ala Wai Boulevard where it struck two parked vehicles and a pole," he said.
Patrol vehicles converged and blocked the truck on Ala Wai, between Lewers and Kaiolu streets.
"The suspect began ramming several marked vehicles before officers fired, striking the driver," the chief said.
Police said two officers shot at the driver. No one else was in the truck, police said.
Kealoha said he was pleased no officers or bystanders were seriously injured during the incident. He said officers "did a good job."
Police blocked off Ala Wai Boulevard to vehicular traffic until noon as police completed their investigation, diverting all westbound traffic onto Kuhio. City traffic cameras showed Waikiki-bound traffic backed up on Kapahulu Avenue for a time.
Los Angeles visitor Patricia Tence thought she was back home where shootings and car chases regularly occur when she heard a police officer yell "Stop" early Tuesday morning from her 11th-floor apartment on Ala Wai Boulevard.
"I was up at 4 because of all this banging," she said.
Tence went to her balcony and saw at least 20 police cars surrounding a truck on the street fronting her building. "He apparently came down Lewers and hit two parked cars and then kept ramming the police cars," she said.
Tence said she became scared when she heard shots being fired. "It was so loud. I thought I was back in L.A. with this car chase happening right below me."
Poese Vatikani left his apartment on Lewers Street after hearing sirens and multiple gunshots.
He arrived at the crime scene to watch an ambulance pull up.
"I saw them place him on the gurney and take him into the ambulance to try to resuscitate him."
Paramedics took a man, believed to be in his 20s or 30s, to the Queen’s Medical Center, where he died, officials said.
Vatikani said police shot out the front right tire of the truck.
"You could hear it screeching down the road as he tried to get away," he said.
Kapiolani-area resident Pat Bigold said he woke up to the sound of multiple emergency sirens and witnessed the shooting through the zoom lens on his camera.
He estimated that while his vision was blurred by the blue lights of police cars, he heard up to 20 shots.
Bigold, who lives on the 20th floor of a condominium across the canal from Ala Wai Boulevard, said at least 20 police cars responded to the incident.
Emergency sirens are a nightly occurrence in the neighborhood, he said. "But what made this different was the rising crescendo of sirens and then the sound of a series of collisions. This was the driver trying to break the police enclosure."
Bigold said he got to his balcony a moment before police opened fire, which "sounded like a barrage of fire."
"It was a pretty good job by HPD to contain a dangerous situation so quickly," Bigold said.
Bigold videotaped the suspect lying on the ground without a shirt until paramedics took him to the hospital.
Several hours after the shooting, police were at the scene collecting evidence and taking pictures of the scene.
A dark blue Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck was seen boxed in by several police cars.
Robinson said five patrol vehicles were damaged, one of them "totaled."
Though the suspect is dead, police have opened up six attempted-murder cases in connection with the incident, one for each officer the truck driver allegedly tried to strike.
Capt. Andrew Lum, an HPD spokesman, said in a Facebook posting that police are investigating the possibility that "drugs and alcohol may have been a factor."
Robert Finley, chairman of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, has lived in Waikiki for 40 years and said it is one of the safest places in the U.S. "if you pay attention to what you’re doing."
A three-block area of Kuhio that includes the section where an officer first fired at the suspect Tuesday morning is the site of about a dozen bars or nightclubs that close at 4 a.m. and is known for fights and other incidents, Finley said.
The shooting of Kollin Elderts on Nov. 5, 2011, occurred at 3 a.m. at the Kuhio Avenue McDonald’s restaurant between Seaside Avenue and Lewers Street. Elderts and Christopher Deedy, the federal agent accused of shooting him, were both reportedly at Waikiki bars before the shooting.
But police deploy extra officers in the area as the bars close, and the shutdown of a controversial establishment called The Shack several months ago appears to have improved the situation, Finley said.
As for how police acted Tuesday, Finley said it’s unfortunate a man died, but he said people walk through that section of Waikiki 24 hours a day. "I’m grateful that they stopped him before he could injure any residents or visitors," he said.
