2 officers did ‘everything’ to save escapee, police say

Two Honolulu police officers did what they could to save a man who escaped from custody and fell to his death from the H-1 freeway in Kapo­lei, police said Tuesday.

"We did everything we could," said Hono­lulu Police Deputy Chief Dave Kaji­hiro in an interview.

At a news conference, Kaji­hiro said family members had been worried about the 37-year-old man’s safety and brought him to the Kapo­lei Police Station on Monday afternoon.

Police discussed the man’s condition with a police psychologist and decided to take him to a medical facility for an evaluation, he said.

The man was seated in the back of a patrol vehicle heading east on the H-1 when he broke out of handcuffs and kicked out the rear passenger window at about 4 p.m. Monday. After the officer stopped the car, the man climbed out the window and tried to jump over the side of the Hono­uli­uli Bridge, near Aloun Farms, Kaji­hiro said.

The officer and an off-duty officer in the area grabbed the man but could hold onto him for only a few seconds before the man fell about 25 feet to the bottom of a ravine, Kaji­hiro said.

"He was a big male," Kaji­hiro said. "He was over 6 feet, over 250 pounds. Two officers unfortunately couldn’t hold onto him."

The man was taken in critical condition to a hospital where he died.

Police opened an unattended-death case and an administrative investigation to determine whether procedures were followed and whether improvements to policies and equipment can be made.

Kajihiro said police didn’t use foot restraints because the man had been cooperative at the station. He said the man was not under arrest and was being detained only for a medical evaluation.

Kajihiro said in an interview that it is possible for a strong person to break out of handcuffs by twisting the restraints and popping the locking mechanism.

He said the man freed himself from only one side of the handcuffs, and how the man actually escaped from the restraints remains under investigation.

Waipio resident Lisa Walter said in an interview after the police news conference that she was driving behind the police car and noticed a man who "looked too big for the back seat." Glass shattered from the left side of the vehicle, and the man used his head to push out the remainder of the glass, then "rolled out" headfirst, she said.

"It looked like he had handcuffs on because he wasn’t using his hands," she said.

Before she drove on, the man stood up and paused to look around. "I thought he was going to jump over (the median area) and go on the other side of the road," she said.