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PHOTO BY CRAIG T. KOJIMA/CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Police investigate shooting shooting on Kalani St. near Waiakamilo this afternoon. Witnesses said an officer shot a suspect, who was taken to the Queen's Medical Center serious to critical condition.
PHOTO BY CRAIG T. KOJIMA/CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Police investigate a shooting on Kalani St. near Waiakamilo Road. Witnesses said an officer shot a suspect, who was reported in serious to critical condition at the Queen's Medical Center.
PHOTO BY CRAIG T. KOJIMA/CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Police investigate shooting shooting on Kalani St. near Waiakamilo Road this afternoon. Witnesses said an officer apparently shot a suspect in the old Libby, McNeil & Libby building.
A Honolulu police officer shot a suspect in Kalihi about 11:30 a.m. today, a witness said.
A security guard patrolling a parking lot across the street from the Libby, McNeil & Libby building at 1451 Kalani St. said he confronted a man in a car.
Tony Roberts, a Securitas guard, said he saw a man sitting in a car with a handgun in his lap, apparently trying to steal a Honda sedan.
Roberts said the man got out of the car and aimed the gun at him from about six feet away. Roberts said he ran through the rear doors of the Dillingham Plaza shopping center at the back of the parking lot and called police.
Roberts said the man had stolen a stereo out of the car.
A Pepsi truck driver, Howard Flores, said he was sitting in his truck when he saw a husky man about 6 feet 3 or 6-4, run across Kalani Street from the parking lot into the former Libby McNeill Libby Building at 1451 Kalani St. The building is home to clothing manufacturer Surfline Hawaii.
Police arrived and entered the building, Flores said. A few minutes later, he heard one loud boom echoing in the stairwell, he said.
Roberts said he heard two shots. He said police told him they shot the suspect in the head.
HPD dispatch said the shooting was reported at 11:36 a.m.
An Emergency Medical Services official said paramedics took a 50-year-old man with gunshot wounds to a hospital in very serious condition. Police identified the man as a suspect.
Police closed Kalani Street at Waiakamilo Road while they investigated.
City Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro and Assistant Police Chief Deborah Tandal went to the scene of the shooting.
The Prosecuting Attorney’s office said it could not comment on the incident because of its policy of not commenting on ongoing investigations, department spokeswoman Lynne Waters said in an e-mail.
But generally speaking, she said, the office has reinstated a policy of conducting its own investigations in cases when a police officer has fired his gun.
Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro had this policy during his previous tenure as Honolulu prosecutor from 1989 to 1996, she said.
Waters said the office has informed the police department and received the department’s concurrence.
