Victim in Waikiki shooting deserves justice, group says

About 70 protesters staged a march from Old Stadium Park in Moiliili to the Hawai’i Convention Center Tuesday afternoon to demand justice in the shooting death of Kailua resident Kollin Elderts.

Protest leaders gathered the group shortly before 5 p.m. at the bus stop on Kapiolani Boulevard across from the convention center, urging marchers to take up a chant of "Remember Kollin Elderts, justice to Kollin now."

The demonstrators, accompanied by more than a dozen police officers on bicycles and on foot, continued the march down Kalakaua Avenue into Waikiki to hold a brief vigil outside the McDonald’s restaurant where Elderts was killed.

One demonstrator blew a conch shell as the group gathered on the sidewalk outside the restaurant to pray and lay flowers and ti leaves on a memorial to Elderts under a plumeria tree.

Michelle Yu, a spokeswoman for the Honolulu Police Department, said the Elderts family did not support the march.

Elderts, 23, was fatally shot once in the chest at Waikiki’s Kuhio Avenue McDonald’s early Saturday. Special Agent Christopher Deedy is charged with second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in connection with the slaying.

Police said Elderts was shot during a violent confrontation involving four men at about 2:44 a.m. at the 24-hour McDonald’s.

Deedy, who was in Hawaii to help provide security for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, was released from police custody after posting $250,000 bail at about 4:30 a.m. Monday.

Deedy, 27, is an employee with the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and was placed on paid administrative leave. He will make his initial District Court appearance on Nov. 17.

Social worker Dina Lloyd, 33, joined the march, pushing her two small children in a double stroller, because she said she was disturbed by newspaper accounts of Elderts’ death.

"I thought it was really senseless and brutal and tragic," she said. "I was shocked because it doesn’t usually happen, gun violence in our community. And then to hear it was someone that was hired to be here to protect others — it was just very shocking and surprising."

She found it "scary" that Deedy was released on bail when there were apparently witnesses to the shooting.

Spectators leaned out of parking garages and second-floor lanais to watch the marchers pass as rush-hour traffic raced by on McCully Street and Kalakaua Avenue.

Andre Perez, one of the leaders of the march, explained to participants over a bullhorn that "it was really our intention as a community to come together and express how we’re feeling, to really try to remember our sense of humanity, our sense of justice, and to not let this go without accountability or any reaction from the community."

Marizsa Bravo, 38, watched the march pass by and said she supported the demonstration.

"We come from L.A. and we see this in L.A. all the time, kids on the street being shot and killed by police, and all kinds of cover-ups," she said. "It’s just sad to come here to Hawaii and see the Hawaiian people struggle in the same way that the black and brown children in L.A. suffer as well."

The protest was organized by the groups Hawai’i Peace & Justice and World Can’t Wait.

It was promoted by emails and posts on an anti-APEC website as well as Hawai’i Peace & Justice’s Facebook page.

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