Homeless man killed crossing highway

Alan Jones was fatally struck by a pickup truck Wednesday night on Nimitz Highway in Iwilei, just a block from the homeless shelter where he was staying.

Residents of the Institute for Human Services, a shelter on Sumner Street where Jones was staying, identified him.

Police said Jones, 63, was struck by a pickup driver while crossing Nimitz Highway in a crosswalk near Sumner Street at about 10 p.m. Wednesday. The driver may have been speeding in the Ewa direction when he hit Jones, police said.

Jones died at a hospital. The Medical Examiner’s Office said he died of multiple blunt force injuries from the crash. The driver was not hurt.

Jesse Lopez Jr., a Kmart security guard, heard the crash from the parking lot and turned to see something unidentifiable flying through the air. As Lopez approached the street, he saw the driver had stopped to call police, and Jones was unconscious in the roadway.

Joseph Fernandez, 70, an IHS resident, said he was Jones’ cellmate for about two years at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona, where Jones was serving time for a conviction in Hawaii. He said Jones told him he was serving a 20-year sentence.

Fernandez said Jones was intelligent and eccentric and tried to teach him how to read. He said Jones practiced Buddhism and Christianity and had an interest in the Hare Krishna movement.

According to the state sex offender registry, Jones was sentenced in 1995 to 20 years in prison for sexual assault. He was released in 2014.

William Kaaialii III, who lives at IHS, said Jones had been living at the shelter for about a year.

“He helped me out,” Kaaialii said. “He gave me cigarettes.”

He said Jones prayed a lot, sometimes in a foreign tongue, kept to himself and often left in the morning for a walk, sometimes using a walker.

He said Jones usually came home early and was probably trying to get to the shelter Wednesday before the doors closed at 10 p.m.