As the community grappled with the death of a Hawaii County police officer whose life was violently cut short during a traffic stop, police said the incident underscores the dangers officers face while conducting traffic stops.

Officer Bronson K. Kaliloa, 46, was shot Tuesday night during a traffic stop while trying to apprehend a suspect wanted for failing to meet the conditions of his bail. He was pronounced dead early Wednesday morning.

“The most dangerous situation is a traffic stop or approaching a vehicle,” said State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers President Malcolm Lutu. “Sometimes it’s a no-win situation. You’re walking up on an unknown. A guy’s in a vehicle. You don’t know what’s in the vehicle.

“We got into the job knowing that could happen and that would be the ultimate situation you’d come upon,” Lutu continued. “Officers train for such moments.

“The goal is to go home at night.

“When an officer doesn’t make it home, the pain is intense,” he said.

“It hurts. Sore. Especially if you work with this police officer,” he continued, adding that a friend’s daughter is a new patrol officer in Hilo and had worked with Kaliloa.

“She’s taking it hard,” he said.

He recalled his own friend and fellow police officer, Glen Gaspar, who was gunned down at the Kapolei Baskin-Robbins store on March 4, 2003. He left behind two young daughters.

Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard issued a written statement: “The men and women of the Honolulu Police Department extend our deepest condolences and sympathy to the family of Officer Kaliloa and our brothers and sisters in the Hawaii Police Department. We are one family, connected by blood and by profession. The Big Island’s loss is a loss to all of Hawaii.”

Among the relatives mourning the death of Kaliloa was his niece Kawehi Haug of Oahu.

She spoke of the effect Kaliloa’s death will have on his three adopted kids, ages 3, 4 and 6.

“He and my Auntie fought for their young lives when their biological father and mother gave up on them,” Haug wrote in a Facebook message to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “They surrounded those babies with security and love and he honored them every single day by giving them everything he could.”

“Now this bastard has stolen their father from them, and has left my auntie shocked, sickened and heartbroken,” she said.

Kaliloa was well respected even before he became a police officer.

At age 22 he was hired as a bus operator by Oahu Transit Services.

“He was one of the youngest people we hired,” said J. Roger Morton, OTS president and general manager. “While 22 is legal, my folks rarely take someone that young. They want someone with more earthly experience. I’m told he really impressed our folks.

“Lots of our folks do remember him.”