Man killed by police was Waipahu resident

The medical examiner’s office identified the 43-year-old Wai­pahu man shot and killed by police early Saturday morning as Victor Rivera.

Police Chief Louis Kea­loha said officers arrived at Rivera’s Hiapo Street home after someone called 911 around 3:10 a.m. and hung up. Officers found him in the backyard wielding a 12-foot metal pole with a sharpened blade at the end.

According to police documents, Rivera threatened his 66-year-old father with the weapon. Officers asked him to drop the pole, but he instead lunged at them with it, police said.

"One of the officers deployed his electric gun, but it was ineffective and the male continued his advance," Kea­loha said at a news conference Saturday. "A second officer fired multiple shots, fatally striking the male several times."

The four officers at the scene were placed on administrative leave as standard procedure, and criminal and administrative investigations have begun.

An officer with 19 years of experience fired the electric gun, or Taser, and an officer with five years of experience was the only one who fired his gun, police said. The two other responding officers have 20 and 13 years of experience. All four work out of HPD’s District 3 in Pearl City.

Rivera allegedly suffered from a mental illness, said police, neighbors and family members.