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Courtesy Crimestoppers
Samuela Mataele was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of his uncle.
The 18-year-old Kahaluu man accused of shooting and killing his uncle also threatened his brother and had two Ziploc bags of marijuana when he was arrested on Sunday, according to court documents.
According to a police affidavit, Leland Mataele, the suspect’s 36-year-old older brother, said he was sleeping in their Kahaluu home on Kamehameha Highway on Sunday when he was awaken by a gunshot.
Leland Mataele said he saw his younger brother, Samuela K. Mataele, holding a rifle and when he asked Samuela what he was doing, the suspect said: “I’m going to kill you.”
While Samuela Mataele was reloading the rifle, Leland Mataele said he ran out of the house.
As Leland Mataele was leaving the house, he said he saw their uncle, Tongan-born Joshua Siosiua Tuiono Liava’a, with a gunshot wound in his head. Liava’a is a former Auckland police officer who lived with the Mataele family.
Police said Samuela Mataele also stole a wallet belonging to a 17-year-old boy.
A preliminary hearing for Samuela Mataele — charged with second-degree murder, terroristic threatening and a firearms violation — was scheduled in District Court on Friday afternoon. He remains in custody at Oahu Community Correctional Center unable to post bail of $250,000.
After a more than six-hour manhunt, police arrested Samuela Mataele on Lamaula Road, about a half-mile away from his home.
During a pat down inspection, an arresting police officer found two Ziploc bags of marijuana and also arrested Samuela Mataele for third-degree promotion of a detrimental drug.
Family members said the younger Mataele was seeing a psychiatrist and had not been taking his medication.
