Police have opened a second-degree murder investigation after a possibly deliberate hit-and-run crash killed a motorcyclist on the H-1 freeway near Kunia on Wednesday night.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim as Keith Jantoc, 25, of Mililani, on Thursday and said an autopsy did not immediately determine the cause of his death.
Police are trying to determine whether the driver of an SUV intentionally struck the motorcyclist.
No arrest had been made Thursday evening. Police were looking for the driver of a dark-colored SUV believed to have been involved in the crash. The SUV was recovered from a Pearl City parking lot Thursday morning.
Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu said police classified the case as a murder investigation based on information provided by witnesses, but she could not elaborate on what the witnesses said.
No motive was known, and no arrests were made by Thursday evening, police said.
The crash occurred in the town-bound lanes of the freeway near the Kunia onramp at about 10 p.m. Wednesday. Jantoc was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Police shut down all eastbound lanes of the freeway to investigate, and reopened the freeway at about 4:30 a.m. Thursday.
At about 7 a.m. Thursday, police received an anonymous call about a suspicious vehicle with front-end damage in a parking lot near the Oahu Urban Garden Center in Pearl City. Responding officers found a dark-colored Chevy SUV with motorcycle parts in its front grille. Police towed the SUV for evidence.
Jantoc was described by a family member as a "soft-spoken and nonaggressive" person.
Jantoc’s family members declined to comment, but his uncle Eiichi Jumawan posted on his boxing club’s Facebook page that he was canceling classes Thursday to support his sister.
"My sister is in turmoil and taking it very hard," he wrote on the PearlSide Boxing & Fitness page.
He continued, "He’s like the guy that always looks for the good in others and so rarely shows any outward signs of anger or frustration at people. It just doesn’t make any sense!"
Antoni Garibaldi said he saw three people who apparently abandoned the SUV on Wednesday night.
Garibaldi, who is homeless, said he was sleeping in his sedan in the parking lot when he heard the SUV pull up about a stall away between 10 and 11 p.m. He saw a woman in the driver’s seat and another woman in the front passenger seat. A man exited the vehicle from the rear passenger seat and changed his clothes and shoes.
"The guy was dressing real fast," Garibaldi said.
Eventually all three walked away, he said. They headed toward town on Kamehameha Highway.
Police have not determined whether the SUV was stolen, Yu said.
