A former University of Hawaii football player and Waipahu High School standout was fatally shot Wednesday on a Las Vegas street.
Blackie Pele-Poti, 44, who played on the offensive line for UH in 1989 and for Waipahu High School from 1982 to ’86, was killed by his 19-year-old stepson, with whom he had an ongoing dispute, police said.
Pele-Poti was found in the street in a residential neighborhood with gunshots to the head, police said in a news release. He died at the scene.
Witnesses helped police find stepson Tyten Kaehu-Scanlan at home nearby.
Police arrested Kaehu-Scanlan on suspicion of murder with a deadly weapon, and on a warrant for battery, police said.
At Waipahu High School, Pele-Poti, then known as Blackie Poti, played offensive and defensive tackle.
"He was great," said Waipahu coach Keith Morioka. "He was one of our better athletes. He was a good kid — just his attitude, his personality, everything that a coach could ask for. He was easy to approach, friendly; he enjoyed people."
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, quoting a police report, reported Thursday that Pele-Poti was in the neighborhood to take his daughter to her fifth-grade graduation.
He had recently divorced his wife, Rebecca Scanlan, with whom he had been raising eight young children and two older stepchildren.
He had had trouble with Kaehu-Scanlan, who in October was charged with battery after the two got into a domestic spat.
Kaehu-Scanlan wanted to attend his half sister’s graduation, but his mother asked him to stay behind to avoid an incident with Pele-Poti, the newspaper said.
But Kaehu-Scanlan ran into him while walking to a gas station, the Review-Journal reported.
He pulled a handgun out of his backpack, shot Pele-Poti in the stomach, then fired two rounds into Pele-Poti’s head, police said.
Former UH football coach Bob Wagner recalled Pele-Poti as a good kid who was recruited from a California junior college.
"We brought him back home," he said. "He’s a kid that really persevered."
Waipahu teammate Cy Hirota said, "Blackie was a well-liked guy. … I can’t believe it."
