The man who fatally shot another man at a McDonald’s in Waikiki on Nov. 5 ran from the crime scene while the victim lay bleeding inside the restaurant, a McDonald’s employee told police in a dramatic 911 call recorded that night and released Wednesday by police.
The McDonald’s worker said the shooter was with a woman and another man, who was bleeding from the head, at the time of the early-morning incident and that all three ran from the Kuhio Avenue restaurant after the shooting, according to the 911 tape.
Recordings from about a dozen calls made to 911 in the minutes after the shooting depict a chaotic scene with screams and sobbing heard in the background of some.
"Somebody just got shot in Waikiki and like I’m freaking out," a woman told a police dispatcher. Moments later, the caller seemed overwhelmed by what just happened: "Oh my God, there’s a gun out. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God."
Christopher Deedy, a federal agent who was in Hawaii to provide security for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, has been charged with second-degree murder and using a firearm to commit a crime in connection with the fatal shooting of Kollin K. Elderts, 23, of Kailua. Police said the federal agent shot the victim in the chest after an argument at McDonald’s shortly before 3 a.m.
Deedy, who is free on $250,000 bail and faces a January trial, has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Brook Hart, said his client "believes he acted appropriately in order to protect others as well as himself."
The first calls to police started coming at 2:47 a.m. At times, the police line was busy, possibly because so many people were calling to report the shooting.
"There’s a dude right now laying on the ground, blood pouring all over him," one man told 911 at 2:49 a.m.
The McDonald’s employee who was working at an order window the night of the shooting told police that the victim was shot four times. Other people who called 911 reported hearing as many as five or six shots.
The McDonald’s employee told police that the woman who was with the shooter and the other man urged the group to leave after the shooting, according to the recordings.
"They saw that the guy was bleeding, they left, like they ran off," said the unidentified employee. "She was like, ‘Come on, come on, let’s go, let’s go.’ "
The worker said the trio ran toward the Waikiki Trade Center, according to the recordings. Nothing was mentioned about why the other man was bleeding from the head.
A McDonald’s manager told police in a 2:49 call that a customer was shot in the restaurant’s dining room by a Caucasian man with dirty blond hair who was about 5 feet 6 inches tall, according to the recordings. The shooter used a small handgun, she said.
When asked where the gunman was, the manager replied, "He just went out." She said his green shirt had "blood all over it."
Attorney Michael Green, who represents Elderts’ family, has said Deedy kicked the victim in the chest and Elderts responded by striking Deedy. The two men started wrestling, and during the struggle Deedy took out his gun and shot Elderts, Green said.
The recordings, which were released in response to open-records requests from the Star-Advertiser and other news organizations, did not make clear what precipitated the shooting.
But one 911 caller described people "staring at each other, they’re joking each other. I told them not to, not to start trouble here," according to the recordings. The caller did not elaborate.
The woman who told police she was "freaking out" said she heard gunshots, then saw a cab speed off toward Kalakaua Avenue. It wasn’t clear from the recordings whether the cab was connected to the shooting.
Another woman who called 911 at 2:48 was heard on the recording sobbing, and was clearly agitated.
The 911 dispatcher tried to calm the woman while attempting to get an open police line. "Stay on the line, I’m going to connect you to police," the dispatcher said.
"They have guns right now," the woman responded, still crying.
"Stay on the line, ma’am," the dispatcher urged.
"Ah, I cannot think," the woman replied.