Salt Lake residents say they awoke to screams early Tuesday morning and later saw first responders trying to revive an unconscious man who was severely beaten.
They said they were stunned to learn that their former neighbor had been arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder.
Honolulu police arrested a 41-year-old man as homicide detectives investigated the apparent beating death of a 33-year-old man and the assault of a 38-year-old woman at the 3400 block of Salt Lake Boulevard.
Taulima Mitaina, 31, who lives in the duplex next door to the woman she knows only as "Nissa," said the suspect is Nissa’s boyfriend, who used to live at the duplex.
The couple had separated, and he moved out at the beginning of November, Mitaina said.
"He would come and go and sometimes spend the night," she said. "When a fight started, we thought they were at it again. By the time we came out, cops were here and the guy was on the road."
Mitaina said she and her family had never before seen the man who died.
Homicide Detective Peter Boyle said a weapon was recovered at a Salt Lake home, but declined to say what it was. Both the dead man and woman had "blunt force injuries," Boyle said.
Boyle said patrol officers responded to a report of an assault at a home at 5:06 a.m. and found the 33-year-old man lying in the middle of Salt Lake Boulevard.
Paramedics took the man in "extremely critical" condition with facial injuries to the hospital, where he later died. The 38-year-old woman went to the hospital in serious condition with head injuries.
The suspect was taken to the Kalihi police station, where he was booked on suspicion of second-degree murder.
Boyle said the incident started with an apparent argument in a home and ended in the roadway.
Police also interviewed two teenage girls who also live in the home.
The suspect lives nearby, according to the police booking log.
Mitaina said the woman’s sister is now caring for her two daughters. One is in high school and the other attends elementary school, she said, adding that she has three other children who do not live with her.
"They’re really good neighbors," Mitaina said. "We would always barbecue and potluck together."
Mitaina’s brother-in-law, 37-year-old John Mitaina, said the former neighbor who was arrested is "a good guy, a humble guy."
"He no bother nobody, likes to make friends with everybody," he said.
John Mitaina added: "We never know something like this was going to happen. We don’t know the guy who died. He never came around here."
Taulima Mitaina said the boyfriend was a mechanic and repaired forklifts and big trucks. The girlfriend worked for the city as a job developer at a Dillingham office, helping prisoners get back into society.
She is concerned about the woman’s children, but is also worried about her own two older children who witnessed a dying man.
"My two older kids saw them doing CPR on the guy," she said. "I hope it doesn’t traumatize them."
She said the whole area became a crime scene. Police put up yellow tape, and she was not permitted to drive her car out of the driveway until about 10:30 a.m.
Police closed Salt Lake Boulevard between Likini Place and Wanaka Street as they conducted a murder investigation and reopened the road at about 9 a.m.
Traffic investigators and the department’s helicopter also responded to the scene. Police planned to take aerial photographs of the crime scene, Boyle said.
