Soldier killed by police was driving drunk

The Schofield Barracks soldier killed by Honolulu police officers after he tried to evade capture in Waikiki on Tuesday morning had a blood alcohol content 2 1⁄2 times the legal limit for driving, the city medical examiner’s office said Wednesday.

The man was identified as Army Spc. Gregory M. Gordon, 22, from Ashford, Ala.

The 25th Infantry Division public affairs office said he returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan within the past year.

Gordon’s blood alcohol level was 0.196, according to a news release issued by Dr. Mike Kobayashi, deputy medical examiner. The blood alcohol limit for driving in Hawaii is 0.08.

Kobayashi said that Gordon died from blood loss due to puncture wounds to his heart and lungs. He also suffered a gunshot wound to the right shoulder, he said.

The Honolulu Police Department said a replica handgun was found in the Dodge Ram truck driven by Gordon. The truck is registered to another man, whom the Star-Advertiser learned is also a Schofield soldier.

On his personal Facebook page, Gordon describes himself as based at Schofield as a “13F,” military parlance for a fire support specialist with a field artillery team.

Sonja Swain, a communications officer for the Ashford Police Department, said Gordon attended school with her daughter, and she described the Gordon family as onetime neighbors. She said Gregory Gordon went straight into the military after leaving school. His Facebook page says he joined the Army in 2009.

Swain, who said she was not speaking for the Ashford police department, said Gregory was the middle son of five boys.

Swain said Gordon has a young son, and that she thinks the toddler and the child’s mother live with Gordon’s parents in Ashford.

Swain described Ashford as a small town of 2,000-2,500 people where everyone knows each other.

“This has really been a shock,” Swain said. “Through his school years, I would never thought of him doing as such,” she said, referring to the Waikiki incident.

At about 4 a.m. Tuesday, Gordon was shot after he repeatedly disobeyed police orders to stop the truck.

Police patrol vehicles boxed in the truck on Ala Wai Boulevard, and video footage of the incident showed the truck rammed the squad cars, and backed up at least once before ramming them again, before police fired their weapons.

Three Honolulu Police Department officers were injured, treated and released.

The shooting is being investigated internally by HPD, and the three officers who shot at the vehicle are on paid leave, as is standard police procedure.

However, HPD officials said preliminary indications are that the officers acted properly because the suspect was endangering the lives of officers and the public.

The incident began when foot patrol officers on Kuhio Avenue spotted the truck on Nahua Street heading the wrong way on the one-way street.