Man fatally shot by police at Waimalu Shopping Center

An off-duty police officer shot and fatally wounded a man at Waimalu Shopping Center on Kamehameha Highway, police said.

The man allegedly stole money at gunpoint from a massage business at the center, then made a threatening move with a gun when he was shot, witnesses said.

Officials said a man in his 30s or 40s in cardiac arrest was taken to a hospital after sustaining a gunshot wound to his right clavicle. He died at a hospital, police said.

Police are also investigating whether there was a robbery at the shopping center.

The shooting happened at the Ewa end of the strip mall. Police closed Kauwa and Kanuku streets in the area of the shooting as a result of the investigation.

The officer has been assigned to administrative duty.

No other suspects are being sought, police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said.

Police closed Kauwa and Kanuku streets behind the shopping center.

The owner of Sukie’s Skin Care, who only gave her first name Sukie, said she heard from the owner of Pukana La Massage Therapy that a customer pulled out a handgun after receiving a massage.

He took cash and ran out while being chased by the owner at the Ewa end of the shopping center.

Hieu Bui, who had just finished eating at a restaurant at the center, said he chased the gunman through the parking lot until he noticed the man was carrying a handgun near the Zippy’s restaurant on the Diamond Head end of the strip mall.

He stopped chasing the man and stood several feet behind a patrol officer who happened to be at the scene directing traffic. The gunman continued to wave the gun in the air and pointed at Bui and the officer, Bui said.

The gunman then ran around the back side of the center along Kauwa Street and back toward the Ewa end.

Juju Yee, a security guard at Waimalu Shopping Center, said a man told him there was a robbery after finding a purse and shoes on the ground fronting Pukana La Masssage Therapy.

He went upstairs to check and found an unspent bullet on the stairwell and the doors of the business already locked.

Yee said he walked to an emergency exit on the second floor, looked down and saw a gunman yelling and a police officer in a vest on Kauwa Street. The officer shouted three times at the man to drop his weapon. The man started to lower the weapon toward the officer when the officer shot him in the torso two times, Yee said.

Yee said the officer had little choice.

“You can’t tell what else the man was up to,” he said.