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Editor’s Note: Officer Chad Morimoto was the 14th Honolulu Police Department solo bike officer killed while on duty since 1923. A story on Page A-1 on Tuesday said he was the 13th.
Officer Chad Morimoto’s death on Monday came nine years to the day another HPD solo bike officer was killed while on duty.
On July 23, 2003, officer Ryan K. Goto, 35, died when his motorcycle and those of two other officers hit a car that crossed a Farrington Highway median near Honokai Hale.
The last police motorcycle officer killed was officer Steve Favela, whose vehicle crashed in September 2006 while he was escorting then-President George W. Bush’s motorcade at Hickam Air Force Base.
Fourteen HPD motorcycle officers have died while on duty since 1923.
Morimoto is the 46th sworn police officer killed on duty, and the third to die in the last year.
On Sept. 13, Waianae patrol officer Eric Fontes was killed as he stood on a grassy median along Farrington Highway near Ko Olina to help another officer, who had made a traffic stop.
On Jan. 21 officer Garret Davis of the Wahiawa District died after a vehicle crashed into his patrol car. Davis had stopped along the left lane of the H-1 freeway eastbound near Aiea to assist a motorist.