A suspect wanted in the killing of the first police officer to be fatally shot on the Big Island likely remains hidden on the mostly rural eastern side of the vast island, authorities said today.

While the 4,028-square-mile island has a varied terrain ranging from residential to dense forests, police said they believe Justin Waiki will be captured soon, Maj. Samuel Jelsma said.

A manhunt has been underway since Waiki allegedly shot and killed Officer Bronson Kaimana Kaliloa during a traffic stop Tuesday night near Mountain View, a community that’s a mix of houses on large lots and undeveloped property.

Kaliloa, a 10-year veteran county police force, was struck in the neck and leg and died at a hospital early Wednesday.

Autopsy results released today list the cause of death as a macerated carotid artery due to a gunshot wound, police said.

Police remind citizens that harboring and assisting a fugitive is a felony offense.

Other officers returned fire at the suspect, who fled into the brush. It wasn’t known if he was hit.

“Everything happened very quickly,” Jelsma said. “During the exchange of fire, he was able to escape. It was dark, too, at the time.” It also was raining hard, Jelsma said, and so an aircraft wasn’t able to assist until the next day.

The shooting occurred in the mostly rural eastern side of the island that has been in the news lately because of the erupting Kilauea volcano.

“As far as the lava flow, that really has no impact on this,” Jelsma said. “We don’t anticipate him going toward the flow. But if he does that would kind of corner him in.”

The eruption zone is heavily patrolled by the National Guard, and there are many police checkpoints.

While Waiki’s last known address is in Las Vegas, he has a criminal history on the Big Island, Jelsma said. “It is our belief that he is receiving assistance from outside sources,” Jelsma said.

Police said the search as been bolstered with assistance from the U.S Marshalls and FBI. Both agencies have offered rewards of $10,000 each. An additional reward of another $10,000 has been offered by Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, (ATF), which brings the total reward being offered to $30,000.

Kaliloa, 46, had been married for 23 years and had three children. He was named “Officer of the Year” for his district in 2014.

Saying the slain officer’s family wasn’t ready to talk, Kaliloa’s niece, Kawehi Haug, sent a Facebook message to The Associated Press.

“He was strong and kind and funny and smart and chivalrous and served his community every day as an honest and upstanding police officer whose convictions guided him to always do the right thing,” she wrote. “He was a husband that saw himself as equal to his wife in every way, and a father who loved and cared for his three babies from the moment he laid eyes on them.”

Haug explained that Kaliloa and his wife adopted three children, ages 3, 4 and 7, through the state foster care system.

“They surrounded those babies with security and love and he honored them every single day by giving them everything he possibly could,” she wrote. “…Tragic doesn’t even begin to describe this horror.”

Waiki is to be considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached. Anyone with information his whereabouts is asked to call the police at (808) 935-3311 or those who prefer to remain anonymous may call the islandwide Crime Stoppers number at (808) 961-8300.

You may also contact Detective William Brown at (808) 961-2384 or by email at william.brown@hawaiicounty.gov.