Sacred Hearts 8th grader among victims in double murder-suicide

Police are investigating what appears to be a double murder-suicide in Makiki Heights near Round Top Drive.

The incident took place at about 1 this morning in a home at 2009 Makiki Street.

Neighbor Valerie Guillermo said she heard about a half-dozen shots over a 10-minute period.

"I was sleeping when I heard a gunshot," she said.

"Then I heard a dog barking. Then another shot.

"A woman then screamed, ‘Stop, stop, stop. Help me."

Another shot rang out.

Guillermo said then she heard a man swearing and a final shot.

"Then everything became very quiet," she said.

Guillermo said she didn’t know the victims, but added: "It’s sad. Someone lost their lives and I couldn’t help."

Betty White, head of school at Sacred Hearts Academy, confirmed that the youngest victim was Saundra Cass, an eighth-grader at the Kaimuki school.

“She was just a model student. She was goodness through and through,” White said.
Cass had attended Sacred Hearts since sixth grade. She was involved in the student council and drama program, White said.

White said the school will have counselors on campus when classes resume Tuesday. Monday is a teacher training day.

Police said other neighbors heard the sound of  breaking glass before the gunshots.

Police found the bodies of a man in his 40s, a woman in her 30s and a teen-aged girl at the home.

A weapon was recovered at the scene.

The home is located at the end of a long driveway at Makiki Street and Round Top Drive.